
HE Radiant 
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Charles ■Wayne Ray 



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Class _RWv5i2jl 

Book ;E-3x7^-- 

GopyrightN"- 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



BOOKS BY CHARLES WAYNE RAY. 



Conditions of Life. 

A little paper bound booklet. Postpaid, 15 cts. 

The Twentieth Century Christian. 

Booklet of 25 pages on the life and work of the 
Christian. 15 cts. 

Bible Questions Answered. 

Cloth-bound book, containing about 100 Ques- 
tions on the Bible and clear definite answers to 
each. This is a splendid and useful book for 
Christian Workers. Postpaid, gi.oo. 

The Radiant Life. 

This is a beautiful little book on life in its many 
changes. It deals with domestic, social, and 
religious conditions of society. Bound in white 
vellum cloth. Postpaid, ^i.oo. 

Send orders for books to 

C. W. RAY, 

Alliance, Neb., U. S. A. 




C. W. RAY. 



The Radiant Life. 



By 

Charles Wayne Ray, A. M., D. D. 

Author of "Bible Questions Answered," "The Twentieth Century 

Christian." Pastor of First Methodist Episcopal 

Church, Alliance, Nebraska. 



Introduction by 

Bishop Luther B. Wilson, 

of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 



PRESS OF JENNINGS AND GRAHAM. 

Cincinnati, Ohio, 

1907. 



UBHARY of CONGRESS f 
Two OoDles Received 

SEP 30 \90r 

Copyrtfht Entry 
CtAs7/4 KX6, 
COPY B, 



Copyright, 1907, by 
Charles Wayne Ray. 



Right of translation reserved. 



DEDIGATION. 



Ddep and painful sorrow has recently fallen 
upon my soul ; a burden and load so heavy and 
painful that, had it not been for my precious 
Lord, I should long since have been crushed to 
earth to weep no more; for my loving, sainted 
wife, Clara BelIv Ray, was permitted to bless 
my home but a few months, when she was sud- 
denly snatched away by death, which, like swift- 
winged lightning, stealthily entered my home, and 
bore her beautiful spirit away, unawares to any 
one. 

In loving token I hereby dedicate this little 
book to her precious memory. 

The: Author. 



PREFACE. 



With a heart all bleeding from the sorrow 
of losing my angel companion, I am led to write 
''The Radiant Life," but if I refer to my own life, 
it has been far from a radiant one; for within a 
few years the grim monster, Death, has robbed 
my home of two loved ones. 

But I dip my pen in sorrow's cup to-night, 
and begin what I am told God wants me to write, 
a treatise on ''The Radiant Life/' and if per- 
chance some careworn, dusty, heartsore traveler 
shall drink from the fountain of life, and find 
the path to the Radiant Life through these lines, 
I shall thank my God and whisper, ''So mote 
it be." 

But it may be, ere these pages are finished, I 
shall be called to lay down my pen, and hear 
my God say, "Charles Wayne Ray, come to 

7 



8 Preface. 

judgment," and yet, my reader, you may receive 
a similar call before I do. 

There is no sweeter, nobler, better path for 
man to go than from deep, heartfelt repentance 
to a definite acceptance of Jesus Christ as a 
personal Savior. 

For this cause I am called to write, and to 
this end I pen these words. 

Little Book, by God's grace I send thee forth 
on an errand to be an everlasting blessing to man- 
kind. 

The love of God attend thy going. 

C. W. R. 

Ai^liance:, Ne:braska^ Aprii, 2, 1907. 



No one e'ver jails ivho does the best he kno^ws, 
and liijes up to alt the light he has. Often ivhat 
men call success is a great failure; and 'what they call 
failure, in God^s sight, has been a splendid success 
and 'victory. There is no failure, night, or death to 
the sainted disciple of Jesus Christ, the Prince of 
Peace. 



INTRODUCTION. 

Compassed about as we are with difficulty and 
conscious as we are of infirmity, every word 
which points to the larger life we should esteem 
very precious, and should welcome such counsels 
as help us in giving expression to high purpose. 
The author of the volume in hand has the right 
to speak, for he has found light when the shadows 
fell deeply on his own path and something of the 
prophet's vision has been his in the study of life's 
common tasks and trials. Is it possible to dis- 
cover beauty in the toil which to many seems 
only drudgery? Can one find compensation in 
the hours when life seems fullest of sacrifice, and 
lowly life be kindly? The answer to such ques- 
tions will determine for us the success or failure 
of living. Well for him to whom Christian 
optimism speaks, who in her words hears God's 
call to the ''radiant life" — life radiant because of 



12 Introduction. 

faith and hope and love, because the Christ is its 
master and model and because the contemplation 
of His beauty is the vision splendid. Such radiant 
life is an exposition of the old gospel in the 
language which humanity best understands and 
is the clearest prophecy of the life triumphant 
and glorious. 

lyUTHKR B. W1I.SON. 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 

Dedication, ------ 5 

Preface, ------ y 

Introduction, - - - - - -ii 

Our Purposes, 19 

Money-Making, - - - - - 23 

Regrets of the Heart, - - - - 27 

Disappointments, - - - - - 32 

Failure in Life, 41 

Our Cup of Sorrows, - - - - 45 

Our Vows, 51 

Weighing Men, 61 

Much Unforgiveness, . - . . ^4 

Home-Making, - - - - - - 78 



^4 Contents. 

The Lighted Candle, - 

The Worship of God, 

Trained in a Home of Prayer, 

God's Matchless Love, 
'Judgment Days, - - . _ 

The Possibilities of a Life, 
The Sunshine Life, 
-The Better Land, - . _ 
The Exalted Life, 
The Radiant Life, 
The Radiant Life— A Poem, - 



Page. 

89 
96 

99 
104 

"3 

121 
126 

134 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 




^ 






Portrait of Author^ 


- Frontisp 


/ 

tecs. 




FACING 


PAGE. 


Obligation, . _ . _ 


- 


56 '• 


Dream of the Radiant Life, 


- 


86 / 


Hour of Worship, 


- 


98 /' 


Possibilities, 


- 


114. 


Rev. J. A. Scamahorn, 


- 


132 


Path to the Radiant Life, - 


- 


146 y 



15 



/ am a tra'veler here to-day^ but do not knoiv 
njuhere I shall be to-morroiv. One mighty purpose 
thrills my soul and lifts my hope to hea'ven, that if I 
do my 'very best and trust the Unseen God^ I need 
not fear ivhen changes come^ nor shrink to cross the 
snivelling tide of death. 



THE RADIANT LIFE. 



OUR PURPOSES. 

SkK that man ! Blear-eyed ; swollen lips ; 
debauched countenance ! He is cursing and 
swearing, and in his hand he holds a shining- 
dagger. See him yonder, in his poverty-stricken, 
dilapidated shack of a house ! His three little 
ragged, hungry children have hidden away under 
the bed to get away from their drunken father ; 
while a frail, weakly woman, the drunkard's wife, 
is crying and trying to get to the door and call 
for help ; but this wretched beast of a man is 
standing in the door, saying, "1 11 cut your heart 
out; for why did you tell the saloon-keeper not 
to give me any more whisky?'' Here is manhood 
dethroned, and all the high-born elements of 
character prostituted in infamy and shame ; the 
mind is controlled and ruled by hellish purposes 
of the blackest dye. Was he always so? O no ! 
He was once a pure, innocent boy, with rosy 

19 



20 The Radiant Life. 

cheeks and curly hair and bright eyes. The ac- 
cursed rum has made him a demon, and he now 
seeks to kill his wife and children. 

Unholy, licentious, and sensual purposes have 
sapped the manhood and womanhood from many 
a person, and left them, like a wrecked ship on 
the high sea, to be whipped by the frothing winds 
and to be beaten by the black, slimy billows, until 
at last, in some dark night, unseen by mortal 
eye, it sinks to a watery grave ; and just so sinks 
and dies he who wills to be impure, and kindles 
sin within his soul. 

Come with me to another scene : Here it is 
evening time, and the day's work is done, and we 
find the father, mother, and two bright boys and 
a sweet little girl, seated around a big, glowing 
fireplace, talking, laughing, and telling stories; 
and thus the evening is spent in a happy way, 
and these children will never forget their home. 
Just before bed-time the father takes a large 
book from the table, saying, ''It is time for our 
evening prayers," when everything stops, and all 
is still. A lesson is read from the Holy Book, 
after which all kneel while the father prays, and 
then all join in the Lord's Prayer. During this 
sacred service white-winged angels are passing 
about the room, distributing blessings to each 
person. 



Our Purposes. 21 

Satanic Advice. 

Here are two homes as different as heaven 
and hell can ever be. These two fathers have 
-made their homes what they are, with the pur- 
poses of their daily lives. 

'T '11 be a man and live for God and heaven," 
says a young man after a night of debauchery; 
but in a few hours he is back in his old habits 
of dissipation. "Gamble again?" '"No, never 
will I gamble again," said a man who had lost 
his last month's wages, while now his children 
are crying for bread ; but month after month he 
does the same thing over. "I 'd like to be a Chris- 
tian," says another, "but I Ve failed so many 
times, I 'm afraid I '11 fail again." These all fail, 
and are miserable and shiftless, because they 
"crush the sweet poison of misused wine," and 
are untrue to themselves and to their God. 

There are many in the treadmill of this life 
resolving and vowing, but who go on continually 
mortifying high purposes, and procrastinating 
good intentions. 

Stop now ! Stop thinking, wavering, waiting, 
faltering, failing, and once for all vow, and let 
the recording angel write and herald throughout 
the courts of glory that a man has purposed, firm, 
sure, and steadfast in his heart, that he will not 
defile himself. Then, this being done, do n't trust 



22 Thk Radiant Life. 

yourself to perform this vow, but let the God of 
high heaven rule you as the mother leads the 
little child. 

The sun is slowly setting 

In yonder western sky; 
And our lives are passing, 

So swiftly passing by. 

By and by the trumpet sound 
In heaven and earth will ring. 

And men and angels everywhere 
Will stand before their King. 

O men of high-born purpose! 

Whence come ye here to-day? 
Have ye not been the victors 

Along life's dusty way? 

Your looks bespeak your trials, 
And careworn seems your brow ; 

But time's hard hand of changes 
Will ne'er confront you now. 

You always stood at duty's post. 
And braved the tempter's snare ; 

Go, buckle on a shining robe, 
And take your place up there. 

The days of purpose now are sped, 

The sentinel tolls the bell; 
We have reached the judgment bar. 

And who our doom can tell? 



MONEY MAKING. 

The love of money, and the craze to possess 
it, is the most domineering sin of this age. Its 
avaracious, grasping hand is seen everywhere. 
It has even ventured into the sacred temple of 
God, the church, and laid its hands upon the 
horns of the altar. Men seem so inflamed and 
insane with the desire to make money, that they 
spend almost all their time away from their 
homes, scheming and plotting how they can get 
their hands on another dollar, while the patient 
wife and mother is at home, with a house full of 
children — seven girls, and every girl has a 
brother — and week after week is trying to teach, 
train, and educate these children for a useful. 
Christian life. 

Father ot your boys and girls, you should 
by law^ divine,- spend much time at home in the 
rearing of your children ; for you can not evade 
your full share of the responsibility. Go home 
when night comes. But everywhere you see the 
bustling scene of men and women rushing madly 
on, at full speed, to overtake another dollar in 
their chase. 

The time now is that people will sell their 
23 



24 Thk Radiant Lifk. 

honor, principles, virtue, neighbors, and religion 
for money. Yea, some have even committed 
cold-blooded murder for the pittance of fifty 
cents. Boys and girls are leaving school at the 
age of ten years, because they have caught the 
fever to make money. Young people quit the 
college long before they graduate, that they may 
have the better chance to get rich. 

When you count the cost, it does not take so 
much, after all, to buy the necessities of life ; but 
it is the luxuries that are damaging to the social 
and spiritual being that cost so much. We Amer- 
ican people are too busy — too busy to take time 
for the many things that refine and beautify the 
soul ; such as art, music, study, literature, travel, 
and worship. These may be had at little expense, 
and yet they will make the life noble, grand, 
happy and good. 

The first diploma I ever received was from 
the Garvin Commercial College of Terra Haute, 
Indiana, and bore this engraved motto: "Not 
by sudden flight, but step by step.'' This has 
been an inspiring impetus to me in my work, 
for many a time, when I was in a hurry to get 
something accomplished quickly and could not, 
this motto gave me cheer and hope. Many a 
man has brought shame and dishonor on himself 
and his family because he was so eager to make 
money that he began lying and cheating, which 



Money Making. 25 

was soon followed by all kinds of dishonest acts 
and unfair dealings, until, after a time, the bony 
hand of the law was laid upon him, and he was 
branded a criminal forever. Many a father and 
mother have made their life a slavish one that 
they might leave some property to their children, 
who, very likely, will fight and quarrel over it 
after their parents are gone. Better leave them 
no inheritance than to brand them with an in- 
sulted name. The shame that hangs over many 
a millionaire because of the dishonest methods 
he used in getting his wealth is heavy enough to 
sink the soul ten thousand fathoms deeper than 
hell. It is very much better to live and die like 
the exiled Kossuth, who said, *'These hands of 
minds are empty, but clean.'' Last week a Swede, 
who is working on the railroad to support his 
family, said to me, "If one thousand dollars and 
a cigar were laid on the table, and I was told 
I could have the money if I would take just one 
puff of the cigar, I would not touch it." Truly 
we may say that he is a man who will not do 
things that "make the angels weep." But miserly 
men and "fools rush in where angels fear to 
tread." (Pope.) 

We need a mighty revival to swing us back 
from the abnormal craze of money-making to 
that of making manhood and womanhood ; of 
making boys and girls of good manners, respect- 



26 Thk Radiant Lifk. 

fill and obedient to their parents ; of making pa- 
rents the reHgious instructors in their homes ; of 
making home a Home, instead of a place to sleep 
and eat; of cultivating a love for the beautiful, 
and of building the soul up in the highest and sub- 
limest of all the Christian graces. But ''the devil 
hath power to assume a pleasing shape,'' and 
often comes as an angel of light to tell you that 
you ought to work harder, store up a little more 
gold-dust, buy a few more acres of land, go to 
church less frequently, and conserve all your 
strength that your mind may be clear for business 
on Monday, and pay less to the Church and the 
minister lest he should get rich and become vain. 
Thus the devil talks to those that he would 
entice and destroy. And so, you poor, old, rich, 
stingy hypocrite, the devil has pulled the wool 
over your eyes until all you can see is money, 
money, money ; and all you can think about it, 
that you fear you may die in the poor-house and 
be buried by the county ; and every time this 
thought passes through your bullet-shaped head, 
you dig in and work harder. 

Wake up to a sense of right living. Spend 
your money to improve society and make bad 
men good. Help build schools and churches, and 
get the religion that wnll make you shout for 
joy, and pay one-tenth of all your income to the 
Lord. 



THE REGRETS OF THE HEART. 

There) is no sadder wail or deeper regret 
than that of one who has had every opportunity 
to make her Hfe a useful one and a crowning 
success, and then to hear that one at last bewail 
that she has lived in ease and luxury and has 
wasted the choicest gems to be found. This is 
just what we hear from Queen Elizabeth of 
England, who had such a splendid chance to 
make a name that would outlive the granite tablet, 
and be a blessing to all the people of her empire ; 
and yet we see her on her death-bed stung by 
such heart-rending regret that she cries out, 
''Millions of money for an inch of time !" Here 
is a long life of seventy years wasted, and regret 
written on the last page of her record. 

Sometimes men are so slavish in their pursu- 
ance of the duties of business that death reveals 
the fact that life's end has been missed by being 
too devoted to details. This is shown in a re- 
markable way in the life of Cardinal Thomas 
Wolsey, who was for years the slave of Henry 
VHI of England. This man was the puppet of 
his king. If Henry crooked his finger, Wolsey 

27 



28 Thk Radiant I^ifk. 

must run like a little child. Shakespeare has 
beautifully expressed the case when he says : 

"O Cromwell, Cromwell ! 
Had I but served my God with half the zeal 
I served my king, He would not in mine age 
Have left me naked to mine enemies." 

Sometimes we are almost sure to see our mis- 
takes ; but, too often, it is then too late to retrieve 
our losses or prevent ruin. Regrets are hard to 
carry with us, and especially so when they pre- 
vent us from making the most of our lives. 

Do not give up, for you may yet outlive and 
eradicate much regret from your life by making 
each day your best. People bear many sad re- 
grets down to the grave, that were brought upon 
them by others, and over which they themselves 
had no control. 

These cases are so very sad : A few days ago 
a young woman, who had gone to Denver, Colo., 
in order to regain her health, was hastening home 
to Milwaukee to see her sweetheart, and die from 
that dreadful disease consumption; but was 
beaten in the race by death. How deeply that 
sweetheart will regret that death outran the 
train, and took his intended bride from the fast- 
flying train on that swifter journey from whence 
no traveler ever returns. Drop to-day for him 
a sympathizing tear, and you will help his soul. 



Regrets of the Heart. 29 

It is very deplorable to see young people plung- . 
ing into those things that will break down their 
health, and sap their strength of character, and 
leave them in old age nursing stinging regrets. ^ 
Yet many are doing this; and perchance they 
will weep to-morrow for their mistakes and sins 
of to-day. Every one should know that a sinful 
life will always bring regrets that will sooner or 
later swarm about the head like bees about the 
hive. 

So many children disobey their parents and 
waste the advantages and blessings that their 
home life provides, who in a few years, in some 
attic room or cheap lodging-house, will weep 
and sigh for their childhood home again, and 
regret that they did not prize it more when under 
its roof. But father is gone, mother sleeps in 
the green city of the dead, and the old home is 
no more. 

"Blow, blow thou winter wind! 
Thou art not so unkind 
As man's ingratitude." 
* * * 

"Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky ! 
Thou dost not bite so nigh 

As benefits forgot; 
Though thou the waters warp, 
Thy sting is not so sharp, 
As friend remembered not." 

— Shakespeare. 



30 The Radiant Lifk. 

A business man of fifty years of age said to 
me one day, "I wish I had jomed the Church 
and become a Christian when I was young ;" but 
all through life he has carried with him the 
thought of what he ought to have done. The 
stings of regret and remorse are very painful. 
If the heart is happy, their coming to the mind 
at once drives out all the joy. 

O ! regret ! Thou phantom ! 

Why dost thou remind us 

Of what we might have done? 

Why dost thou torture conscience? 

No one cares to see thee, 

For thou art an unpleasant companion. 

When thou art near we weep, 

And feel so very sad. 

We are sorry that we ever met and knew thee ; 

Thou art a base intruder; 

Begone ! Die with the setting sun, 

Under the blue covering of the sky 

And face to face with the myriad stars. 

I, a sane man, of mature age and reason, do 
hereby resolve (Recording Angel, write lest 1 
forget) that I will not do so or say anything that 
will cause others regret and bring remorse to 
myself. May this be the resolution of every one 
that God lets live. Unkind words are better 
never spoken ; evil thoughts should be banished 
quickly and with care ; and unkind deeds — O man 
and woman, commit them not. 



Regrets of the Heart. 31 

We cause most of our own regrets. It is for 
your good that you 

"Give thy thoughts no tongue, 
Nor any unproportioned thought his act." 

— Shakespeare. 

For the criminal behind the prison bars cried 
out, ''O, how I wish I had never committed that 
vile deed ! O, that I had never been born !" But 
this does not satisfy the law, nor drive remorse 
away. It is seldom, if ever, that people are able 
to make restitution for the wrongs they have 
done to others. But hear me, down-pressed, 
aching soul ; before you stands the Son of God 
with bleeding hands and feet, a victim slain that 
you might have an atonement for all your sins, 
and approach the throne of God, and say, "Abba, 
Father." Kneel now in prayer and communion 
with your Christ where you are, and the Holy 
Spirit will minister to your aching heart, and 
God will give you strength for to-morrow's 
duties. Do not presume to travel life's journey 
without God. He will help you bear your bur- 
dens, and will sweeten many a sorrow if you will 
only let Him come into your heart. "Do it now.'' 



DISAPPOINTMENTS. 

There is no life but has had its disappoint- 
ments. They often come like the flashing 
lightning, bearing the breath of loss, failure, and 
death. Your bright hopes, dreams, and prospects 
of youth — where are they? Dying, they have 
died with the death of time, and nothing remains 
but the echo of their passing. 

Why are people disappointed, and why do 
they fail? Is it because they were wrong, proud, 
and selfish; or was it to teach them that they 
can not depend on the things of this changing 
world for security and steadfastness? Every- 
where constant changes confront us ; earth, sky, 
clouds, stars, palaces, thrones, empires, and hu- 
man beings are changing. We are not to-day 
what we were yesterday; and to-morrow there 
will be other changes. But we are hastening to 
one of two countries where things shall never 
change; for Holy Writ says, "Let him that is 
righteous be righteous still." (Rev. xxii, ii.) 

Here is the land of fixed conditions, — fixed 

punishment and fixed happiness. There will 

never be any change in the eternal world ; in 

whatever condition the soul is when it enters one 

32 



Disappointments. 33 

or the other of these places, it will continue to 
be, established and molded in its surroundings ; 
for the soul's mode of living will not be changed 
after it leaves the confines of earth. But not so 
on this earth. 

This is a place of ravaging disease, gross 
injustice, tyranny, scoffing, and the abode of the 
fell destroyer, Death. Here men fight, quarrel, 
rob one another, kill, burn the body, scatter the 
ashes, and live on, seemingly unpunished. Sin 
often runs riot, and righteousness hides for 
safety. What fond father or mother, having 
built lofty prospects and great ideals and achieve- 
ments for an only son or daughter, has not unex- 
pectedly suffered the painful crucifixion of seeing 
their child fling to the wild winds all their advice 
and counsel, and wade out into the bitter slough 
of disobedience, utter shame, and ruin ? Perhaps 
you know some parents who have suffered thus. 

O, God ! why must some lives have so much 
of bitterness? It was but yesterday — a bright, 
glorious, sunshiny day, a beautiful Sabbath — 
that I stood by a kind father who had just re- 
ceived this message from a wayward daughter 
two thousand miles away. 

''Telegram : 

"Alone, sick, and stranded; please telegraph 
$30. Fare home. (Signed) " 



34 - Thk Radiant Lifk. 

The story back of this message is a sad one, 
and in brief is as follows : A girl would not heed 
her father's or mother's advice, but took up with 
a stranger against their warnings ; ran away and 
married him; sold what property she had, and 
went with him to California ; and in a few weeks 
came the message with these bitter words. Could 
anything be more heart-breaking than this ? And 
yet this experience is being repeated over and 
over again each day by disobedient boys and girls 
somewhere. Many a sad mother has moaned : 

"O, sometimes how long seems the day, 
And sometimes how weary my feet! 
But toiling in life's dusty way, 
The Rock's blessed shadow, how sweet!'* 

— E. Johnson. 

Sometime ago a young man, a friend of mine, 
was married to a beautiful Christian woman, and 
he also is a devoted Christian. But in a short 
time his wife sickened and died of that dreaded 
disease, consumption, and thus the home that 
they had dreamed of, and looked forward to, was 
soon broken up; and another disappointment is 
added to the records of the past. 

I recall a young man who, a few years ago, 
had bright prospects, and his people wanted him" 
to go to college; but he would not go. He 
seemed to live without any aim or purpose, and 



DlSAPPOINTMKN'TS. 35 

yet he was an intelligent boy. He is now about 
thirty-six years of age, and has inherited a rea- 
sonable amount of property ; but he is utte;-ly 
void of ambition ; lazy ; takes . little interest in 
things that make society better; has no business 
energy, but is simply a drone in his community. 
His prospects have been wasted, and he has dis- 
appointed all who knew him. In every town and 
village these unproductive leeches of society may 
be found, living upon what others are producing. 
They are of no value to themselves or to any- 
body else. May their horde become fewer each 
succeeding year ! 

I knew a young man who spent twelve years 
in learning to play the violin ; but who, in an 
unexpected moment, had his right hand crushed 
in a machine, and he is now left unable to ever 
again play his instrument. There are so many 
useful, energetic young people whose future is 
blighted by some accident or calamity as this 
young man's was. 

It was a great pleasure to me, when in 
Chicago in the fall of 1906, to visit the Art In- 
stitute ; this large building is filled with many 
masterpieces of the greatest painters. One por- 
trait that drew my attention was entitled, "The 
Last Moments of Sappho/' It was the picture 
of a beautiful young woman. But why was it 



36 Thk Radiant Lifk. 

entitled her "Last Moments ?" Is she to sacrifice 
her Hf e for the cause of liberty ? No. Is she to 
die for her rehgion, as many have done? No; 
not that. Is she a traitor or a wizard? O no! 
Is she a criminal who must die to satisfy the 
law? No ; not a criminal. Is she to risk her life 
to save another? No; not a heroine. Why, 
then, you ask, are these the last moments of this 
beautiful girl, dressed in a gauzy white dress, 
with flowing hair, as she stands on the edge of 
a high clifif, covered with green, velvety grass, 
which is sprinkled with pink flowers? She is 
pausing before the fatal leap into the frothing 
sea beneath, where she will die the death of a 
suicide. Better that she had been a criminal, 
guilty of breaking every law, than that she 
should rush into God's presence before she is 
sent for, or invited to come. What will she say 
to Him when He asks, ''Why do you rush into 
My palace at this untimely hour, when no one 
has invited you to come?" What can any one 
say to God when asked why he or she committed 
suicide? But this beautiful girl is soon to dis- 
appoint her dearest, kindest friends, and leave 
a stain that will shame even the night itself. 

It was my sad duty to conduct the funeral 
of a young woman who committed suicide in a 
vile place a year ago. The aged mother and a 



Disappointments. 37 

son were the only mourners. How that mother 
wept, as though her heart would break, as she 
told me what a sweet, pure child her girl once 
was ! What a change now ! And what ravages 
sin has made in this young life ! 

How often the innocent must suffer a thou- 
sand pangs and disappointments because some 
one has made shipwreck of God's great gift, life! 
But I am persuaded that many a parent is to 
blame for the ruined lives of their children. Why 
do so many boys and girls want to get away 
from the old home? Why do they want to stay 
out late at night or loaf down-town? Too often 
it is because home has lost its charms for them. 
Father and mother are too busy with the fever 
to make money, or they are giving most of their 
time to thirteen lodges and clubs, and so have 
no time to inquire into what their children are 
doing, or to make the home attractive for them. 

Young people should have things attractive, 
for it is the age when the heart is full of romance. 
Parents, decorate and beautify the sleeping-rooms 
of your children. This can be done at such a 
little cost. Hang pictures on the walls; have 
things neat and tidy. It really seems sometimes 
that parents, by their niggardly life and unkind 
treatment, drive their children away from home, 
and start them on the road to shame. Then con- 



38 The Radiant Lifk. 

fide in them ; talk about their future ; point out 
the dangers and pitfalls that destroy so many; 
inquire into their love affairs ; boys and girls 
must love, so pick out the boy and girl- for them 
to love who is pure and good, and lead them to 
choose the purest and best for associates. Some- 
times parents act as though it is a sin for boys 
and girls to like each other. The boy that does 
not like a pure, sweet girl, you may be sure, has 
some secret habit of sin in his heart that he would 
not wish to be made known ; and no doubt will 
soon enter a door that has written over it, al- 
though unseen, "All hope abandon, ye who enter 
here.'' (Dante.) 

One of the mightiest forces to lift young 
people up, and start them toward God, heaven, 
and a happy home of their own, is a deep, pure 
love for a noble associate of the opposite sex. 
Have games and musical instruments in your 
home ; buy what will interest your children, even 
if you do not leave them a dollar when you are 
gone. Keep your children at home by staying 
with them ; for — 

*The first sure symptom of a mind in health 
Is rest of heart, and pleasure felt at home." 

— C. Young. 

If some parents would take half as much 
interest in their children as they do in their cows 



Disappointments. 39 

and pigs, they would have the most refined and 
cultured boys and girls. Make your home such 
a glad, happy place that your children will want 
to spend all the time in it they can. One of the 
greatest needs of the United States to-day is 
Christian homes. 

There is so much in life that makes us sad, 
and so many things we would have otherwise. 
Every one we meet has a sad, mournful tale of 
disappointment. It is written everywhere. I 
wonder if you have not heard the forests moan 
and sigh ? How lonely and gloomy ! So is many 
a sad heart. The young, the middle-aged, and 
those in the evening of life, have all been visited 
by the ravens of disappointment. O, could we 
but fly away and be free, and be at rest! How 
very true are the lines of Longfellow : 

"He, the young and strong, who cherished 

Noble longings for the strife, 
. By the roadside fell and perished, 

Weary with the march of life." 

Whatever changes time may bring to you ; 
whatever shadows fall across your path; what- 
ever friends betray you ; whatever hopes vanish ; 
whatever loved ones pass from your home ; what- 
ever bitter spring you drink from each day; 
whatever sufifering rolls upon your soul — there 
is One who never, never fails or disappoints. 



40 Thk Radiant Lifk. 

"Let us be patient ! These severe afiflictions 
Not from the ground arise, 
But oftentimes celestial benedictions 
Assume this dark disguise." 

— Longfellow.- 

There is a Ruling Spirit that outrides the 
howHng, surging storms, and carries healing in 
His touch; He has balm for the weary, and 
strength for the weak ; and, 

"When afflictions press the soul, 
And when waves of trouble roll," 

He ''will bear our spirits safely over the tide." 
Let us go to Him now, with whatever burdens 
the soul, and let our sorrows be lost in His. 

Never give up to your disappointments ; 
strike hands with God ; rise up in all your might ; 
pluck your faith anew from the citadel of Zion, 
and conquer every doubt; bid the tempter 
begone ; and step by step climb the highway that 
will at last bring you to the gate of that city of 
which it is written, "There shall in no wise enter 
into it anything that defileth, neither whatsover 
worketh abomination or maketh a He'' (Rev. 
xxi, 2y) ; but that you may enter in with the 
enraptured hosts, of whom it is said, 'These 
are they which came out of great tribulation, and 
have washed their robes, and made them white 
in the blood of the Lamb." (Rev. vii, 14.) 



FAILURE IN LIFE. 

We can not and must not expect that all our 
plans and purposes shall succeeed, and failure 
be to us unknown ; for somewhere on life's rough 
and perilous highway we shall fail in our fondest 
endeavors, and our brightest dreams and clearest 
visions will disappoint us. Who but Heaven's 
God can help in times like these? 

But we are men ! 

Men of our God! 

The shining sun, 

The howling storms, 

The blasting hosts of sin, 

Nor all the elements, 

Can unsex or unmake a single one, 

Nor defile any soul 
That wills to be true to God. 

In all the great universe there is but one 
thing that makes life a failure ; it is not poverty, 
sickness, false friends, the lack of an education, 
deformity of body, the need of a job; but it is 
black sin in the heart. If this abides, you are 
an everlasting failure. 

You have had your failures, reader, and life 

41 



42 The Radiant Life. 

for you has been very dark and sad. There have 
been times when you have said, 'It 's no use, I '11 
quit trying;'' for your ambition was paralyzed, 
hopes blighted ; no one gave you a word of 
cheer, and no bright star was seen in the future 
for you. I have met you here to-day, my sad 
brother, on this bridge of hopelessness, while 
below you sweeps the great black sea of despair, 
tossing its seething, howling billows, and mutter- 
ing a mournful tune that causes you to think, 
"This is the sea of Forgetfulness, and, plunging 
in, my troubles will be o'er." 

Hear my simple story, stranger. 
For I know your feelings well ; 

From the depths of bitter heartache 
I have sipped the cup you tell. 

But that thought was a delusion, 

And the escape you sought to find 
Is the ruin of your temple, 

And injustice to your mind. 
Here 's my story, plain and simple ; 

Take it as we part to-day; 
If it helps you, praise the Maker; 

If it hinders, never say. 

There 's a highway leading upward, 
Step by step we heavenward go; 

Daily, hourly crucifying 
All the sinfulness we know. 



FAII.URH IN Life. 43 

Now, I 'm thinking, as we 're climbing 
From the things of earth away, 

Soon we '11 reach the Golden City, 
Soon we '11 be with God to stay. 

So, cheer up, my fellow traveler, 

This is no time to sigh ; 
You may be a heavenly blessing 

Yet before you die. 

Go forth to every duty's call. 

And never, never waver ; 
Be Christlike in each word and deed, 

And let no soul be braver. 

Then follow on the shining light, 
That lights each darkened day; 

The road you Ve traveled has been long. 
But angels lead the way. 

And w^hen the shades of night shall fall, 

Across thy beaten path. 
Remember He who nves you breath 

Will waft you home at last. 

' And w^hen it 's time for you to die, 
And pass from earth away, 
The gates of heaven will swing ajar. 
And there you '11 be to stay. 

For, after all, it is God alone who can make 
us what we ought to be ; for no evil genius can 
penetrate the bosom of our Father God, and 



44 . The Radiant Life. 

take away the assurance and redemption of the 
soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose. 

Cheer up ; take new heart ; press on ; you have 
not failed ; you only stopped to think, and think- 
ing made you sad. Try again ; begin anew. You 
can not fail if God be yours, and you His con- 
secrated child. We part; but Heaven attend 
thee, and angels be thy thoughts ! 



OUR CUP OF SORROWS. 

"The path of sorrow, and that path alone 
Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown." 

— Cowper. 

The: trace and gloom of sorrow is to be found 
everywhere in nature as well as in humanity. 
Men, beasts, and birds weep for their losses, and 
even the flowers sigh and moan for their frosted 
brothers and sisters. Indeed, I think the sorrow 
among the flowers is as real to them as man's 
sorrow is to him. 

The babe cries for what it can not reach ; 
children for broken dolls and toys ; and older 
people for so many losses and failures. There 
are tears for poverty and wealth; for the sick 
and well ; for broken vov/s and resolutions ; for 
trials and disappointments ; for our own bad 
deeds, and for our sacred dead. 

Rev. F. W. Robertson has truly said, ''At 
every step in the solemn path of life something 
must be miourned which will come back no more." 
The black veil has fallen upon the home; a holy 
stillness prevades every chamber, and it is whis- 

45 



46 Thk Radiant Lifk. 

pered, "She is dead/' A spirit clothed in im- 
mortal youth and a character of heavenly beauty 
has left the path of great burdens, duties, and 
sorrows, and has gone out forever to dwell in 
the land of unclouded day. 

If you have not tasted of this bitter, biting 
sorrow, you have escaped an awful sting and 
heartache. We weep, but feel no better. We 
question, wait, and pray, but all we hear is the 
groaning of our broken hearts. 

Solomon says, ''There is a time to weep" 
(Eccl. iii, 4) ; but with some it seems that this 
time is all through life. The Holy Writ says, 
''Weep with them that weep," but the words of 
the poet are overdrawn when he says : 

"Laugh, and the world laughs with you ; 
Weep, and you weep alone." 

I do not think this is true ; for if there is no 
one to sympathize with you in your sorrow, 1 
believe that the angels would drop their golden 
harps, and all the celestial hosts would bow in 
sorrow with you. Every home and every heart 
has its burden of grief and sorrow. We have all 
cried out at times, "O, God, why must I suffer 
so?" But Death keeps on his lightning trail, 



Our Cup of Sorrows. 47 

plucking here and there without any warning 
beforehand. For, — 

"There is a reaper, whose name is Death, 
And with his sickle keen, 
He reaps the bearded grain at a breath, 
And the flowers that grow between." 

— Longfellow. 

"How fast has brother followed brother 
From sunshine to the sunless land !" 

— Wordsworth. 

O Death! thou grim monster, why dost thou 
come, when thou knowest thou art always unwel- 
come where thou goest? For, — 

"Loveliest of lovely things are they, 
On earth, that soonest pass away. 
The rose that lives its little hour 
Is prized beyond the sculptured flower." 

— W. C. Bryant. 

Grief and sorrow is the common lot of man. 
They always come untimely, but at last they 
break up every home. 

"Is there no other way, O God, 

Except through sorrow, pain, and loss, 
To stamp Christ's likeness on my soul, — 
No other way except the cross? 



48 The Radiant Life. 

And then a voice stills all my soul, 

As stilled the waves of Galilee; 
'Canst thou not bear the furnace heat, 

If 'mid the flames I walk with thee? 

I bore the cross, I know its weight ; 

I drank the cup I hold for thee; 
Canst thou not follow where I lead? 

I '11 give thee strength ; lean thou on Me.' " 

Look up, then, said, sad heart, and let it be 
that your sorrows shall draw you nearer to your 
Lord. We must sufifer. It does not seem right 
that man should suffer so ; it is not right. Sor- 
row was brought into the world by Satan, and it 
ought not to be endured ; but we are going, thank 
God, to that spirit-land, where ''God shall wipe 
away all tears from their eyes ; and there shall 
be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, 
neither shall there be any more pain: for the 
former things are passed away/' (Rev. xxi, 4.) 

Brooks says, "Every groan that shakes the 
bosom is a sorrowful protest against the injustice 
of sin ; every pang that rends the frame is a 
swift witness to the frightful evil of sin ; every 
grave that has upon it a mound of earth, or even 
a stately monument, is an outstanding demon- 
stration of the monstrous wrong inflicted by sin.'' 
Let your sorrows break your heart, for God loves 
you very much. 



Our Cup of Sorrows. 49 

"And you shall shortly know that lengthened breath 
Is not the sweetest gift God sends His friend ; 
And that, sometimes, the sable part of death 
Conceals the fairest boon His love can send. 

If we could push ajar the gates of life 
And stand within, and all God's workings see, 

We could interpret all this doubt and strife. 
And for each mystery could find a key. 

But not to-day; then be content, poor heart, 
God's plans like lilies pure and white unfold ; 

We must not tear the close-shut leaves apart. — 
Time will reveal the calyxes of gold. 

And if through patient toil we reach the land 
Where tired feet with sandals loosed shall rest ; 

When we shall clearly see ^and understand 
I think that we will say, 'God knows the best 

—Mary Riley Smith. 

Let us bear to Jesus all our sorrows, and trust 
Him; for His grace is great, and He will ever 
be your Friend and Helper. I know it is so 
hard just to give up and sufifer, and never know 
why it must be so ; but yet there are many other 
things we shall never know until we push ajar 
the golden gates of glory, and hear our Father 
tell us why. So be content to wend your way 
until your journey is done, and you have reached 
the Fatherland of God. 



50 The Radiant Lifk. 

"Then cheer thee, cheer thee, suffering saint! 
Though worn with chastening, be not faint ; 
And though thy night of pain seem long, 
Cling to thy Lord : in Him be strong ; 
He knows; He numbers every tear; 
Not one faint sigh escapes His ear.'' 

And then go forth in sweet submission, and 

"Take the name of Jesus with you, 
Child of sorrow and of woe; 
It will joy and comfort give you; 
Take it, then, where'er you go." 



OUR VOWS. 

A vow is a sacred, solemn pledge to do or not 
to do some definite thing. It may be spoken or 
unspoken ; written or unwritten ; acted or un- 
acted ; but however it may be, nevertheless it is 
a vow. 

It was in the twilight of the world's history 
that a man, fleeing from a deceived father and 
a robbed and angry brother, weary in body and 
soul, hungry for bread, sat down on some rocks 
to rest; and after he rested awhile, his body 
called for sleep. What would he do? Sleep on 
the bare ground, with rocks for his pillow? This 
is just what he did, because he could do no better. 
He was alone in a strange place. But while he 
slept, angels built a ladder from heaven to earth, 
and ascended and descended on it, thus remind- 
ing the sleeping refugee that he could not get 
away from God, and that Jehovah was anxious 
for him to be reconciled. When he awoke he 
was afraid, and said: "How dreadful is this 
place ! This is none other but the house of God, 
and this is the gate of heaven.'' (Gen. xxviii, 

17.) 

''And Jacob vowed a vow, saying. If God 

51 



52 Thk Radiant Lifr. 

will be with me, and will keep me in this way 
that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and 
raiment to put on, so that I come again to my 
father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be 
my God ; and this stone, which I have set for a 
pillar, shall be God's house ; and of all that Thou 
Shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto 
Thee/' (Gen. xxviii, 20-22.) 

This vow Jacob most surely observed and 
kept; and wonderful was his material success. 
In fact, the keeping of such a vow has been a 
great blessing to thousands of people after as well 
as before Christ came into the world. 

This means of supporting the Jewish Church 
became an established part of the Jewish law 
some years later. For centuries the Jews gave 
to the Lord one-tenth of all they produced. 
Twentieth-century Christians, if you, with all the 
heritage of the faith of the saints of the past, 
will enter into this covenant with your Lord, and 
give him one-tenth of all you earn, not one-tenth 
after you pay expenses — that is, a tenth of your 
income — you will be wonderfully blessed. If all 
Christians would do this, Church finances would 
be settled, and the members, would not have to 
hold Church fairs, bazaars, sales, exchanges, sup- 
pers, card parties, and dances, in order to get 
money to support their Churches. 



Our Vows. 53 

If there is anything that ought to be despised, 
it is the practice of giving card parties and dances 
for the benefit of the Church of God. Tithe 
your income, and keep your Church above the 
reproach that comes to' those who do these 
worldly things. 

Long, long years ago Carthage and Rome 
were in a bitter war. It was in a dark and trying- 
hour of this war that Hamilcar, the Carthaginian 
general, was sacrificing to his gods, when he took 
his little son, Hannibal, a child of nine years, and, 
placing the hand of the boy on the bleeding sac- 
rifice, he "made him swear eternal enmity to the 
Romans." 

This oath permeated the depths of the boy's 
'soul ; the solemn vow to fight the harassing 
enemy of his country stirred Hannibal even to 
the last hour of his life. To humble Rome was 
his vision day and night. He led his army across 
the Alps, endured hardships, braved starvation, 
and suffered the stings of adversity all because 
he was spurred on by a mighty vow. 

O Hannibal, Hannibal ! could I replace the 
vow to thy country with one to serve the Christ 
and transplant thee to this twentieth-century day, 
I would avow thee one of the mightiest soldiers 
of Jesus Christ that ever named His name. 

In adversity people often make vows which 



54 Thk Radiant Lifk. 

keep them brave and strong throughout life. 
Abraham Lincoln, in an hour of great responsi- 
bility, onee said: ''I am not bound to win, but I 
am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeeed, 
but am bound to live up to the light I have. I 
must stand v^ith anybody that stands right, stand 
with him while he is right, and part with him 
when he goes wrong." Such allegiance to the 
right as this would surely make the foundations 
of hell shake, and cause Satan to quail. 

Before an altar stands a man dressed in 
black, and on his left, holding his arm, is a 
woman dressed in white ; their faces are bright 
and smiling; no care or grief is manifested ; they 
seem to look out before them to a happy life 
and home. Listen as they take the solemn sacred 

'*I Hkrkby Promise That I Wii.iy F01.1.OW 
THE Teachings of This Book." 

marriage vow ; the minister reads the vow : 
''Wilt thou have this woman to be thy wedded 
wife, to live together after God's ordinance in 
the holy estate of matrimony? Wilt thou love 
her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in sick- 
ness and in health, and, forsaking all others, keep 
thee only unto her, so long as ye both shall live?*' 
The man's answer rings out clear and firm, *'i 
will." To the similar questions the woman 



Our Vows. 55 

answers with becoming affection and grace, "I 
will/' At the close of the ceremony the minister 
pronounces that they are husband and wife 
together, in the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Holy, sacred vow! 
Could this pledge, taken before God, ever, ever 
be broken? Yet this is so. Alany a beautiful girl 
has suffered from a broken heart because this 
holy vow has been broken. Many a life has been 
ruined and killed as the biting frost kills the 
flower, because some one has been untrue. In 
every city there are sad, suffering wives, because 
some husband was unfaithful to his marriage 
vow. O, that the gloom of heartache might be 
lifted from these suffering ones ! 

The great, crowning event in the life of a 
woman is her wedding day. Her ideal is soon 
to be hers by law and right divine. The new name 
that she has dreamed of and cherished is now 
hers ; and she asks no more than to be loved and 
to love. So, husband, you ought to so live and 
act that every day would seem a wedding day 
to your wife. 

''Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than 
that thou shouldest vow and not pay." (Eccl. 
V, 5.) Husbands and wives, be true to your 
marriage vows, so that you can go before God 
with clean hands, a clear conscience, and a brave 



56 Thk Radiant Lifk. 

heart, and say there is one vow that you have 
kept unbroken. Remember this holy vow every 
day and everywhere you go, and say, '1 '11 break 
it never/' 

A strong, erect, energetic young man ap- 
proaches an altar, "I desire," says he, ''to take the 
vows of Christian baptism and Church member- 
ship." Hush! Be still! This is hallowed 
ground ! The minister advances to the chancel 
and reads the usual questions : "Dost thou re- 
nounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp 
and glory of the world, with all covetous desires 
of the same, and the carnal desires of the flesh, 

Broken Vows. 

so that thou wilt not follow or be led by them?" 
The answer is firm but sympathetic, 'T renounce 
them all." After the prescribed questions for bap- 
tism, the minister begins the vow for member- 
ship in the Church: *'Do you here, in the pres- 
ence of God and of this congregation, renew 
the solemn promise contained in the baptismal 
covenant, ratifying and confirming the same, and 
acknowledging yourself bound faithfully to ob- 
serve and keep that covenant?" Again this 
splendid-looking man replies, ''I do." 

Holy vow of the Church, thy charms are 
with me yet! Thy restraint has kept me often, 




OBLIGATION. 



Our Vows. 57 

and thy lofty theme has been my highest zeal 
and ambition. O, a rich repast has been my 
feasting delight; bind me closer to my Lord, and 
fill me with His heavenly glory ; for He has been 
so precious to my soul ! Is it possible that some, 
taking these vows in sincerity, should ever will- 
ingly break them? Yes, it may be so. Yet I 
can not conceive of so great a traitor, nor one so 
false to God, as he who, with eyes open and in 
the broad light of this vow, knowingly and will- 
ingly breaks this, his most solemn pledge and 
obligation. Christian, this vow, perchance made 
in childhood's glow, is worthy the devotion of 
your whole life. If you, in some hasty, un- 
guarded moment, have been untrue in the per- 
formance of all the requirements of a Christian, 
repent at once ; look up ; start anew, and let each 
resounding footstep bring you back to a full 
sense of your duty to the invisible God. 

Many a person has said on a sick-bed, **0, 
God, if Thou wilt let me Hve, and make me 
strong and well again, I '11 be a Christian/' And 
God did restore that man to new health; but 
what about the vow to God? I fear it is too 
often forgotten and neglected. 

When we see how sin tears down homes, and 
ruins manhood and womanhood, it seems to be 
self-evident that every person should be an 



58 The Radiant Life. 

eternal enemy to sin, and should champion reform 
movements, and do all that he can do to build up 
righteousness: because sin, in any and every 
phrase, means sorrow, suffering, and death. Men 
are not all alike in their power of will and back- 
bone to say no to that which injures them; but 
there are so many that can't resist what harms 
them and what they do not wish to do! But 
weak humanity succumbs when the person knows 
better. Such are our unfortunate brothers and 
sisters. If you are stronger in integrity and 
decision on what is right and wrong, and have 
moral force of character to refuse to do the 
wrong, you are, by virtue of this strong charac- 
ter, obligated to to do all you can to break the 
bonds and habits that injure your weaker brother. 
But, on the other hand, there are men like the 
lurking parasite, living and growing fat by 
making others poverty-stricken and ruining their 
health. 

When, O when, ye sons of Adam, will ye 
hear the cry of the oppressed, wronged, and 
weak, and know you are your brother's keeper, 
and flee to his rescue? Better die in the alley, 
starve in the desert, or rot in the jail, than shirk 
your duty in helping to protect and save those 
who can not help themselves ; or refuse to stand, 
first, last, and always, for the right. Life is not 



Our Vows. 59 

the supreme goal of man ; but loyalty to the un- 
changing truth of God is the sublime height to 
which all should desire to rise and live. 

How long shall the sin-cursed, rum-blighted 
soul call for help, and none seek to succor him? 
One of the most widespread and devastating 
evils in America to-day is the liquor-traffic. 
Every sane, reasoning man ought to vow to help 
destroy this vice. The liquor-traffic ought to 
die ; and die it will, if every man will plight his 
faith to God and obey Him. Yea, this direful 
traffic is dying; its hideous skeleton still stalks 
about; its reddened face still walks the streets; 
it is yet in the paths of the rich, gay, learned, 
talented, hurling them headlong into hell; but 
there are many great, true, brave men who have 
said, ''We will fight it to the death.'' And like 
John Adams, who said, when championing the 
cause of the Revolution, ''Sink or swim, live or 
die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my 
heart to this vote," — whenever men get to the 
point where they can express a vow like this 
against the evil, it will die. Come, let us say it 
together, "The liquor-traffic ought to die, and die 
it shall." 

This motto was displayed at the National 
Anti-saloon League Convention that met in St. 
lyouis, Mo., in the fall of 1906. 



6o The Radiant Life. 

"A bar to all that 's true and brave, 
A door to every drunkard's grave ; 
A bar to joys that home imparts, 
A door to tears and aching hearts ; 
A bar to Heaven, a door to Hell, — 
Whoever named it, named it w^ell." 

Unless this evil is eradicated, it will destroy 
our lofty laws, sacred homes, holy Churches, and 
bury our nation in oblivion. Why will men and 
women be ruled and swayed by its pernicious 
power? You owe it, my reader, to yourself, 
your children, your fellow-citizens, and your 
God, to throttle this curse now. If it is not 
destroyed, it will some day disgrace and shame 
your family name. Many are man's plighted 
vows, both broken and kept. I have named but 
a few, but enough, I hope, that you may see the 
result of woe and shame that comes when these 
vows are broken. 

Take up anew your vows ; forget, and ask 
God to forgive, your past; be men and women 
of- sterling will, of firm allegiance to Christ; 
never wear the name of coward, or play the 
devil's fiddle. 

Do not become a weak victim, as Shakespeare 
says, 'Tor still we prove much in our vows, but 
little in our love." 



WEIGHING MEN. 

I SAW a picture in the Fine Arts Building at 
the World's Fair in St. Louis, in 1904, that im- 
pressed me very much ; it was that of an old 
man going up a steep hill with a bundle of sticks 
on his back ; but the load had become too heavy 
for him, and he had fallen under the weight; 
then, to his right, a skeleton was coming forth 
from the brush, with a scythe in its hand, and 
the old man was gazing at it with a frightful 
stare. The skeleton represented death coming 
after the old man's soul ; but he was unwilling 
and unprepared to go. So I have wondered 
many a time, if death should come upon us as 
suddenly, if we would be ready to follow him 
out from our bodies into the spirit world. I 
fear, if we should be weighed now, we would 
be found wanting. 

All about us is a rushing, hustling crowd, 
that is weighing and measuring us each passing 
day, and leaving a mark upon us by which those 
who come after them may read our value at a 
glance. Thousands of people who have been 
thus weighed, never knew the scales on which 
5 61 



62 Thk Radiant Life. 

they were placed, nor saw the hand that moved 
the weights; but, nevertheless, they were found 
to be "lighter than vanity." (Psa, Ixii, 9.) 

Near the court-house in Louisville, Ky., is a 
bronze statue of a woman who is blindfolded, 
holding a pair of scales in her hands. She rep- 
resents the Justice of earth ; showing that Justice 
is either blind to many a person's virtues, or to 
many an atrocious crime. So it is found to be 
true that many an honorable court is a black 
stain on the fair face of justice ; and many a trial 
is highway robbery in the light of day, while the 
judge looks on and smiles. 

Nine people out of ten would live longer 
and fare better if they would keep their business 
out of the courts. The defense or prosecution 
that many a lawyer puts up for his client is a 
disgrace on his noble profession. But we are all 
being weighed at every step we tread ; and many 
a noble deed and merited task receives no com- 
mendation. 

People are weighed by their manners and 
conversation. Politeness and courtesy give a 
person greater value than the lack in him of 
these pleasing qualities. It is very true that men 
with proper self-respect will not swear in the 
presence of ladies. Many young men and young 
women choose their associates among the low 



Weighing Mbn. 63 

and vulgar, and soon become like them; and 
their conduct in such society leaves a stain upon 
their characters for many years. When once 
branded with such a mark, it takes long years 
to retrieve the disgrace. 

A depositor of a city bank was leaving town, 
and in conversation with the banker said he 
might need more money than he had on deposit, 
and asked how it could be best arranged. The 
banker said, "Take a blank note along, and what- 
ever you overdraw, just sign the note, and send 
it back.'' That man had been weighed and could 
be trusted, for truly ''a man's best things are 
nearest him." (R. M. Miller.) 

But many a man is weighed and purchased 
with a pile of boodle, and all the higher elements 
of his nature are perverted. Indeed, graft has 
caused many to succumb to disgraceful tempta- 
tions, and to be branded as traitors to morality 
and reform. It takes nerve and an indomitable 
character to say no, and then stand by it, in the 
face of temptations. Men like George Wash- 
ington weigh more than a thousand animals that 
dress and pass as men. People are weighed by 
their work, principles, and accomplishments, and 
giving a rating that constitutes their daily pass- 
port. 

Great fame came to Longfellow through his 



64 The Radiant I^ifk. 

poem, ''Excelsior;" to Coleridge by the Rime of 
the Ancient Mariner; to Lowell through the 
Vision of Sir Launfal; to Milton through Para- 
dise Lost and Paradise Regained; to Shakespeare 
through all his productions. Webster will never 
be forgotten because of his reply to Hayne. 
Lincoln's Gettysburg speech will live forever. 
Even time-tarnished Rome has gained great 
glory through the poet's sorlgs, although, 

"She saw her glories star by star expire." 

— Byron. 

Demosthenes's orations have made his name 
immortal. Few men have ever done more to 
benefit humanity than John Wesley, and the 
song, 

"O for a thousand tongues to sing 

My great Redeemer's praise. 

The glories of my God and King, 

The triumphs of His grace!" 

by Charles Wesley, has brought inspiration to 
millions of souls. Thus our work is our greatest 
recommendation. It has been my privilege for 
years to be in various caucuses where men were 
being weighed for public office. And you would 
be surprised to learn how much there is in most 
men to be criticised. Some have a string for a 
spinal cord, and have no bone in their back; 



Weighing Mkn. 65 

others when they say yes, mean no; and so 
vice versa. Another associates with the wrong 
class, and hence would not promote moral ad- 
vancement. One fellow is all for self; another 
can't say no, and stick to it. Some men can be 
coaxed and persuaded into anything. Many men 
have no executive ability ; there are few strong 
leaders in any community. Some men are so 
afraid that they will lose a dollar if they should 
oppose saloons and gambling that they would 
carry a cuspidor for the devil to spit in, in order 
to stir up any one who might quit trading with 
them. Some men can be bribed; others intimi- 
dated; and many are cowards. So, long before 
the caucus is over, you, a looker-on, will wonder 
if there are no real men in the community — men 
of firm principles, good morals, and uncompro- 
mising allegiance to the right. Such men are 
indeed scarce. They are needed all over this 
country, in every town and city ; needed to lead 
out and urge the wavering masses to press for- 
ward and promote everything that elevates and 
improves society. 

Young men, you are being weighed at every 
step you take and every act you do; and these 
things will decide whether you shall be promoted 
or lose the standing that you have already at- 
tained. If you are worthy to go higher, unseen 



66 Thk Radiant Lifk. 

lips will sing your praises, closed doors will be 
opened for you to ascend; and if you are worthy 
of confidence and good men's recognition, then in 
distant cities your virtues will be proclaimed, and 
you will never need to go in search of a job. 
But how true it is that in the haunts of vice and 
shame, ^Ue dead live there!" (Shelley.) O, 
they move about to the performance of their 
sinful deeds; yet they are dead— dead to the 
pure charms of beauty; unmoved by a call to 
repentance ; unmindful of the fact that each day 
bears them on to that place where death and 
darkness live together. 

I shall never forget a scene that I witnessed 
at the reform school at Plankinton, S. D., in 
1904. In a field a dozen boys were hoeing corn. 
As we came near them, I saw that one boy about 
sixteen years old had a chain on his ankle and 
an iron ball on the chain ; he would hoe weeds as 
far as the chain would reach, and then move the 
ball and keep on hoeing. Upon inquiry as to why 
he was treated so, I learned that, a little time 
before this, he had, by his good behavior, become 
a "trusty,'' and was sent out in the county on a 
parole to work for a farmer. There he stole 
some horses and ran away, but was captured, 
and brought back, and chained, waiting for his 
trial. What a pity that a young boy must wear 



Weighing Men. 67 

an iron chain on his ankle ! Yes ; but he was 
weighed in the balance and found wanting. 

I wonder how long the wheels of time must 
keep rolling by the centuries before humanity 
learns the great truth that ''the way of trans- 
gressors is hard." (Prov. xiii, 15.) 

But there are men as true to their duty and 
the cause of right as Old Faithful Geyser in the 
Yellowstone National Park. It works regularly, 
every hour and ten minutes throwing out boiling 
hot water one hundred and fifty feet high. It is 
a magnificent scene to witness it at night under 
the searchlight Irom the Old Faithful Inn. What 
a blessing if we were as regular in the perform- 
ance of life's supreme duties! 

A few days ago I visited a murderer in the 
county jail, where he is confined awaiting his 
trial. It was very sad to hear him relate how 
he ran away from home, and departed from his 
mother's prayers and Christian training. The 
bailifl^ handed me a letter to read from this 
young man's mother and brother. Sad and bitter 
were her regrets that her boy was a mur- 
derer. Her sorrow was deep and burn- 
ing because her boy was a criminal. 
How she pleaded with him, while another man's 
blood stains his soul, that he would repent of his 
sins and beg God to save him, saying that his 



68 Thk Radiant Life. 

awful crime would surely take her to an untimely 
grave. Why is he a murderer? It was whislcy 
that caused him to commit murder ; it was whisky 
that brought him to the jail. Ah, yes! it was 
whisky that ruined this mother's boy. And on 
to swift ruin and destruction whisky is sweeping 
thousands of young men to-day. O, men, created 
in the image of heaven's God, why will you do 
these atrocious deeds ; and why will you drink 
"the dark beverage of hell?" 

Look about you, and see what it has done 
for many of the best men ; see how it has de- 
stroyed business, broken up homes, and left its 
victim a miserable, wretched drunkard, who is 
kicked about and snubbed, whom nobody loves 
and for whom nobody cares. Will you 

"Go hear what I have heard — 

The sobs of sad despair, 
As memory's feeling fount hath stirred, 

And its revealings there 
Have told him what he might have been, 
Had he the drunkard's fate forseen?'^ 

Then solemnly and forever give up the intoxi- 
cating cup, and vow and live a total abstainer. 
This is the only safe and sure way to treat the 
fiery cup. But so often after the shame and 
disgrace of the criminal's deeds have overtaken 
him, and hovered about him to be his dailv atmos- 



Weighing Mkn. 69 

phere, and he is catalogued and branded publicly 
a lawbreaker and criminal, and he lives year after 
year dead to society, then he sees, but too late, 
''Virtue in her shape how lovely!" (Milton.) 
Still he can not change his past nor recall a 
single act that he now regrets. The journalist, 
Murat Halstead, in a letter to me once said, ''I 
believe that every drop of liquor that is taken 
as an indulgence, and every form of the use of 
tobacco, is a weakness in the work of any man's 
life." 

Drink is the prevailing cause of the unfortu- 
nate poverty-stricken condition of so many labor- 
ing people in every community. Often those who 
get good salaries are the poorest and slowest 
when it comes to paying their bills. If men 
would leave gambling and whisky alone, many 
of the problems of Socialism would at once be 
settled. 

Some children were sent home one Sunday 
from the Junior League to observe during the 
week what Jesus would say to them, and what 
He would tell them to do. The following Sun- 
day the children were asked to report what Jesus 
had told them to do. After a number had told 
how He had told them to be good and do right 
at all times, one little fellow said, "J^^^s told me 
to whip William for hurting me last 



70 Thk Radiant Life. 

week." Poor little fellow! It's the same old 
Adam spirit that will crop out. Many older folks 
receive the answer to their prayers long before 
they pray, because self often speaks louder than 
Christ. We are daily doing what we want to do, 
regardless of what God tells us to do. 

There are strange reasons why some people 
are good, law-abiding citizens. It is very evident 
that some are good because they are watched, and 
fear they will be caught in their meanness. Some 
pass in aristocratic society who "assume a 
virtue," because they have none that is real. 
Others are good when it is popular to be so; 
while still others are good if they can make more 
money by appearing so. 

There is too much sham and surface good- 
ness in society to-day. People swarm about you 
if you have a higher social and financial stand- 
ing than they, and shower compliments upon you, 
smile and bestow courtesies upon you, when at 
the same timiC they may be laying plots to cheat 
you in business, secure your good name, or rob 
you of a virtue, if possible. Much of the so- 
called high society is rotten, polluted, and vile. 
Then, everywhere you go, you find a class called 
policy people, who think nothing, believe noth- 
ing, but practice everything. They have no prin- 
ciples, and will not commit themselves on any 



Weighing Mkn. 71 

moral question, but are like birds on the wing. 
They dodge every moral issue, and endeavor to 
cater to all -classes, and are even afraid to 
acknowledge their own names lest somebody 
should call them in question, and they would 
have to take some stand. Thus they live, year 
after year, like pimps who sap their living from 
the life-blood of others. 

A professor of public schools went into a new 
town to teach, and soon after was invited to 
attend a dance and play cards; but he thanked 
the people very much, and said, ''No, I can 't 
come because I do not believe it is right to do 
such things.'' ''O, you are a Methodist, are 
you?" ''No,'' said he, "I am not a Methodist." 
By this simple incident we see that Methodism 
had been weighed, and in that town counted for 
somic thing. 

Rev. Dr. W. R. Halstead, a Hoosier minister, 
in giving a motto that he had followed through 
life, said, "Do right; trust God; and go ahead." 
There is nothing nobler and grander in this 
world than a man full of the bloom of virtue, 
inspired by a holy God, firm for the right, con- 
servative, but the avowed enemy of impurity and 
uncleanness, standing out boldly and publicly 
against every evil, regardless of how and where 
other people stand; standing alone, if need be. 



72 The Radiant Lifk. 

when it is for principle and right. Such a person, 
man or woman, is greater than any crowned king 
that ever held a scepter or could make or unmake 
laws. 

How true it is that ''a brave man struggling 
in the storms of fate," often succeeds beyond his 
greatest expectations. Bishop H. W. Warren 
once gave me this motto which was an inspira- 
tion to him in all his life-work, "Keep everlast- 
ingly at it." We are being weighed, and will be 
every day we live. Sometimes it is by the loving 
hands of friends, and at others by those who hate 
us because we have outstripped them in the race 
of life. People look upon us many times biased 
and prejudiced, and criticise us from a standpoint 
of envy, jealousy, malice, and their own insignifi- 
cance. 

There are some very small people in the 
world ; small in aim, purpose, principles, motives, 
and estimates of others. There are some very 
narrow, self-conceited people, who can only do 
one kind of work, and can 't do that in a decent 
way ; who, when they meet great personages that 
are capable of doing a dozen things 'm a masterly 
way, begin to pick flaws and discount their work. 
Great souls can not be injured by such little 
puppets, but will be prospering long after these 
little parasites have become summer tourists. 



Weighing Mkn. 73 

You will be weighed by every kind of peopfe ; 
but this is especially true, that ''the world turns 
aside to let any man pass who knows where he 
is going.'' (David Starr Jordan.) 

Be men ! be women ! so that, when weighed, 
it will require many weights to show your honor, 
integrity, virtue, honesty, purity of heart and 
soul and faith, and trust in Jesus Christ your 
Lord. And then, 

"Count that day lost whose low descending sun 
Views from thy hand no worthy action done." 

— Stamford. 



MUCH UNFORGIVENESS. 

It is strange that some people are so mean 
and unforgiving. But so it is. Unforgiveness 
is surely one of the most distressing sins in 
human experience. It has ruined and forever 
tarnished many a beautiful life. It causes the 
soul to feed upon its own bitterness. Unforgive- 
ness inflames the heart of the youth and maiden, 
and drives older people to desperate deeds. ''I '11 
forgive it, but I '11 not forget it," is often heard ; 
which simply means, the lips say they forgive, 
but the heart says, ''It 's a lie." Why do men 
and women cling to it when they see its diabolical 
results? Homes, business, and Churches have 
been broken up by this devilish sin. It has made 
men who have known each other from boyhood 
for forty years, bitter, deadly enemies; bearing 
day after day a killing grudge; hating to the 
very death. Suppose you have been treated 
wrongfully; every noble, good person who ever 
lived before you has been mistreated, wronged, 
and misunderstood, and our Lord and Master the 
most cruelly of all. Just remember, ''To err is 
human, to forgive divine." (Pope.) 

74 



Much Unforgivknkss. 75 

But this is an age in which many people, even 
professed Christians, forget kindnesses and 
favors done to them, but remember each and 
every Httle wrong they have ever suffered ; they 
see all the faults of their neighbors, but are blind 
to all of their own. If there is a human being 
that ought to go to hell, it is he or she who 
receives help from another, help that was needed, 
and then, after a time, schemes, plots, and does 
that same person an injury secretly. Such I 
would deem a traitor to decency ; a seducer of 
charity ; a scorpion of infidelity ; an impostor, 
imp, renegade, and a suitable fireman for the 
furnace of hell. You need not waste your time 
over the question whether or not a Christian can 
harbor unforgiveness. I do not believe that a 
Christian can hold the least spark of unforgive- 
ness longer than a minute, and not commit a 
sin. You may recall the tragic assassination of 
President McKinley in Bufifalo, N. Y., on Sep- 
tember 6, 1901. He was shot by the drunken 
wretch, Czolgosz, who, a little after four o'clock, 
approached the President, who smiled, bowed, 
and extended his hand to his bloodthirsty 
assassin, not knowing that the bandaged hand 
held the weapon of death, but desired to be 
courteous to any person, whether high or low. 
Suddenly a shot was fired, and the great, noble 



76 Thk Radiant Lifk. 

President was murdered. Commotion and con- 
fusion followed; the crowd was bewildered, 
startled, and soon wild with rage, when some 
one cried out, "Lynch him." But the Christian 
President — all honor to his name — slowly raised 
his right hand, red with his own blood, and 
gasped out, 'Xet no one hurt him," and then 
sank back as the assassin was led away. This 
noble act in such a trying hour teaches a sublime 
Christian lesson, showing how fully God can and 
will control the life, and revealing the sublime 
virtue of forgiveness. 

It reminds us of the Christ of God, suflfering 
crucifixion at the hands of a jealous, hateful, 
cruel mob. Patiently enduring the scorn, 
mockery, and infamy that they most unjustly 
heaped upon Him, He cries out, "Father, forgive 
them." Plere we find the Christian way to treat 
those that injure and do us harm. Well may we 
sing, 

"Forgiveness to the injured does belong; 
But they ne'er pardon who have done the wrong." 

— Dryden. 

for the Bible plainly says, "Therefore if thou 
bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest 
that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave 
there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way ; 



Much Unforgiveness. 77 

first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come 
and offer thy gift." (Matt, v, 23, 24.) 

Better give up your unforgiveness; for if 
you do not, it will surely sink you into hell. Be- 
sides, it takes all your happiness in life to carry 
this bitter sin. It makes this life a hell to many 
a person, and, as ]\Iilton says, 'Xong is the way, 
and hard, that out of hell leads up to light.'' So 
we may say of unforgiveness, through many a 
long, hard, unhappy year ,will the poor soul 
stagger on under its load, unwilling to cast it 
off; for somehow they think, "In hope to merit 
heaven by making earth a hell." (Byron.) 

If you would be a man of God, stop your 
seeking, at every turn, to do your neighbor harm, 
or to repeat an evil tale about him, or cheat him 
in a trade, or bear him the grudge of unforgive- 
ness. Kill the unforgiveness in your heart by 
welcoming the Holy Spirit to come in and 
sweetly abide, and have His shrine forever 
there. \ 



HOME-MAKING. 

He:ave:n is a great, large home, the fireside 
of our God ; and some day all His children will 
be gathered to be with Him. Some day the wan- 
dering ones will return, and there will be a 
great reunion. But all this is beyond the valley 
of tribulation, and is to be reached after tired 
feet have trod the rocky and rough road to the 
border-line of time, for, — 

"Beyond this vale of tears 
There is a life above. 
Unmeasured by the flight of years, 
And 'all that life is love." 

— Moore. 

But why can not each home be a little 
heaven here, and angelic hosts bring messages 
from afar? It may be so. There is nothing 
more heavenly than the building of Christian 
homes in this world ; and the cherubim and 
seraphim can have no grander work than this. 
What can be a nobler scene than to witness a 
young man and woman building their little home? 
They are full of bright dreams and visions, anR 
are lovingly devoted to each other by the tie that 
78 



Homk-Making. 79 

is 'like to that above/' They go forth with 
enraptured hearts, wilHng to sacrifice for each 
other. Well might angels envy them, this 
sublime work of loving hands. If only this 
honeymoon period of heavenly fragrance could 
be preserved throughout the long, weary years 
of drastic changes, what a comfort it would be! 
But too often love growls cold, affection wanes, 
kindness assumes the form of heartlessness, and 
home is neglected. If the home fulfills the mis- 
sion that it should, in after years it wall be tran- 
scendent joy to say, 

"I remember, I remember 

The house where I was born, 
The little window where the sun 
Came peeping in at morn." 

— Thomas Hood. 

In these busy, arduous, commercial days, the 
home ties are greatly neglected. Husbands are 
often in such haste to make money that days and 
w^eeks pass, and the patient wife receives no 
token that she is still loved as she was on the 
bridal morn. Do not rush through life at such 
lightning speed as though you were chasing a 
wild steed. But take time for your home life ; 
be at home with your family ; make it a place to 
be sought; for it will not continue long as an 
unbroken circle. But if love is king, the hum- 



8o The Radiant Lifb. 

blest home is a glorious place. Husbands and 
wives, do not wrangle, quarrel, fuss, or be stub- 
born. Your home can be made a hallowed spot 
if you are kind and loving to each other as in 
your honeymoon. Forgive each other the mis- 
takes that are made, and try to see which one 
can keep sweet the longest and endure the most. 
There is many a husband who, 

*'Like a puffed and reckless libertine, 
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads," 

while his patient wife takes in washing, and does 
almost everything to keep the home together. 
Just think, fortunate husband, how much your 
good wife must endure to live with a lordly, 
heartless master like you ! It 's a wonder that she- 
keeps as sweet-spirited as she does ! Don 't com- 
plain and find fault, even if things do go wrong, 
for there is a bright side somewhere ; just hunt 
it up. We have heard husbands and wives use 
very rough, unbecoming language in talking to 
each other. Don 't do this, for you will be sorry 
sometime. Elihu Burritt gives wholesome ad- 
vice in this: "Use your gentlest voice at home. 
Watch it day by day as a pearl of great price ; 
for it will be worth more to you in days to come 
than the best pearl hid in the sea. A kind voice 



Homk-Making* 8i 

is joy, like a lark's song, to a hearth at home. 
Train it to sweet tones now, and it will keep in 
tune through life/' 

If everybody would only recognize the bless- 
ing of a sweet, tender voice, we would surely cul- 
tivate our voices more. Banish your crossness, 
crabbedness, spitefulness, and be just as tender 
and loving as in your days of courting, or on your 
bridal day, when you promised each other to love, 
honor, and cherish ''till death us do part;" and 
thereto you plighted your faith. 

You may live to see your loved ones cold 
and still in death; and then you will be very 
sorry for the bitterness and heart-ache you caused 
them, but your repentance will not bring them 
back to you again. Think and reason a long 
time before you do or say anything mean and 
hateful. Emerson has said, ''Curses always recoil 
on the head of him who imprecates them.'' 

The honeymoon does not last long with some 
married people, and then they begin to fuss and 
quarrel ; and this will soon break up the home 
and home ties. Make your married life one con- 
tinual wedding-day. Tell your wife you love 
her ; caress her as you did when she was a 
bright-eyed, rosy-cheeked lassie; this will make 
her wondrous happy. But you may say, "Wliat's 
the use ? She knows I love her." If you do love 



82 Thk Radiant Lifk. 

her, your actions have not shown it for the last 
six months, and "actions speak louder than 
words." Court her as you did when you were 
sweethearts, and never let the flame of love die 
out or grow cold. 

There are many little things that you can do 
around the home that will lessen the drudgery 
that your wife endures every day. Husbands, 
strive to make your home the happiest place in 
the land and your wives the sweetest. 

Have some kind of musical instrument in 
your home ; this will soften the coarse nature, and 
cause aiTection to grow steadily. In the evening 
twilight sing together some old religious hymns, 
and be religious. Have some sweet, prattling 
children in your home; they will teach you 
patience, endurance, sacrifice, and the beauty of 
innocence. 

Every man ought to give his wife a weekly 
or monthly allowance, so that she will not have 
to be running to him every time she wants a 
nickel, and then have to explain to her lord and 
master what every penny is for. She is an in- 
telligent woman, otherwise you would not have 
married her; and if you can't trust her with a 
little money, why do you trust her to manage 
the house? It is very embarrassing to your wife 
to come to you for a few pennies each day, so 



Homk-Making. 83 

give her a certain amount monthly to be used for 
herself as she pleases. 

Every family ought to own their home. So 
plan and live to have a place you can call your 
own, and know that no landlord can put you out 
because your rent is not paid. For there is a 
charm about a humble cot, if it is yours. One 
of the paramount desires of the true wdfe is to 
have her own home. Sacrifice, save your money, 
and buy a nice little cozy cottage. The home 
may be made attractive and cheerful by hanging 
a few beautiful pictures on the walls. Even if 
you are poor you can buy a few pictures ; these 
may not be very expensive, but they will be 
worth their weight in gold as the years go by, 
and then the husband will 

"Hie him home, at evening's close. 
To sweet repast and calm repose." 

— T. Gray. 

The charms of the old home will never be for- 
gotten, and no doubt you have said many times, — 

"O, could I only tread once more, 
The field path to the farm-house door ; 
The old green meadow could I see. 
How happy, happy, happy. 
How happy I should be !" 

— Green. 



84 Thk Radiant lyiFK. 

Make your home such that your children can 
look back to it as the happiest place of all life's 
journey; for the time to be spent with your loved 
ones will soon be o 'er, and you may see them 
no more forever. So deal kindly with them while 
they are here ; for a long, long sleep will inter- 
vene, even should you sometime meet again. I 
can not close this chapter without saying your 
home ought to be a precious, sacred, Christian 
home. Have the family altar, around which you 
may gather night and morning to talk to God; 
and make the Bible the Guide-book for each day's 
journey. 

May the angels often visit your home, and 
may it ever be an earthly paradise, until at last 
you scale the heights of heaven and hear Gabriel 
peal out the watchword, ''You 're at home at 
last !'' 



THE LIGHTED CANDLE. 

''How far that little candle throws its beams ! 
So shines a good deed in a naughty world." 

— Shakespeare. 

Just as the candle throws out its rays of 
light, so ought every person's life to be in this 
dark old world, throwing out the sunshine of 
God's love. 

How bright, cheerful, and glowing some 
people's faces are ! They scatter sunshine wher- 
ever they go. How it does help us to meet these 
happy people! They make our sorrows lighter 
and our joys brighter. 

I remember a schoolteacher who had such a 
heavenly face ; she was always the same pleasing, 
happy woman. 

If only we were all in this heavenly mood ! 
You can drive away many frowns and sweeten 
many a sad heart with your smiles ; and then it 
costs so very little. 

Just try smiling and speaking kindly, even 
if it is only for one day. There are some folks 
that always carry a thunder-cloud on their faces ; 

85 



86 The Radiant I^ifk. 

they act and speak so meanly that they make you 
hate them; they are always complaining; look 
sour, fret, scowl ; say mean, cutting things ; never 
forgive a wrong; and if you make a mistake they 
never forget it, and are everlastingly talking 
about their neighbors. 

It 's a pity they were born here instead of in 
hell, where they could have society of their own. 
They are devils incarnate. But why can 't we all 
be kind and loving to each other? Indeed, we 
can be, and God desires that we should be; for 
every life is a lighted candle, burning either 
dimly or brightly. 

A party was being conducted through Mam- 
moth Cave, Ky., in 1904, and when in the Star 
Chamber, a very large room, we were told to 
blow out our candles. "Dark?'' It seemed dark- 
ness was never so dense ; several women were so 
scared that they screamed and called for light. 
Yet there is a place somewhere in God's universe, 
we are told, where darkness reigns forever, and 
not even one ray of light has ever penetrated 
its confines ; and there are some who are hasten- 
ing to this abode, for they *'love darkness rather 
than light because their deeds are evil." (John 
iii, 19.) 

Every person should shed some light for 
those about them. There are many dark, sad 




DREAM OF THE RADIANT LIFE. 



The Lighted CandlEo 87 

lives in this old world that need light and sun- 
shine. 

It was while going through Wind Cave, S. D., 
in 1902, that a Baptist minister and myself left 
the- party to go on an expedition by ourselves; 
and after winding our way through the narrow 
passages for awhile, we suddenly noticed that our 
candles were burning low, and at once we 
hastened back and got to the door just as the 
candles went out. 

This is typical of many a person's life; love 
and kindness is crushed out ; God is neglected ; 
the soul is being starved ; and the person does 
not realize how mean, hateful, and unchristian- 
like he has been until the candle of life is flicker- 
ing to go out, and then he hastens to right all 
the wrongs of his past life and get ready to die. 
It is an awful thing to sin against the light and 
deny the Christ of God. For life is too short to 
waste our ''sweetness on the desert air.'' How 
true it is that 

''Man is his own star ; and the soul that can 
Render an honest and a perfect man, 
Commands all light, and influence, all fate, — 
Nothing to him falls early, or too late. 
Our acts our angels are, or good or ill. 
Our fatal shadows that walk by us." 

— Fletchei. 



8S The Radiant Life. 

Be a lighted candle every day of your life, my 
kind reader, and thus lead the way so that many 
may be kept from the treacherous pitfalls that 
would ruin them and leave them in remorse and 
anguish forever. For the life that is lit up with 
the Holy Spirit, and burns constantly in sweet 
communion with God, will send its rays of in- 
spiring grace into the dark places in many lives, 
and will thus be to them a heavenly lighthouse. 

Shine ! Shine for the glory of God and the 
salvation of mortal men! 



THE WORSHIP OF GOD. 

On entering Shaw's Missouri Botanical Gar- 
den in St. Louis, to your right on a large building 
you will see these words, "Glory to God in the 
highest, and on earth, peace, good will toward 
men ;" and in another part of the grounds, on the 
statue named Victory, you may read, ''O Lord, 
how manifold are Thy works ! In wisdom hast 
Thou made them all." 

One can not help but be deeply impressed 
with these precious words in the midst of this 
beautiful scenery. The garden seems sacred, for 
nature is very prolific in her display of every 
variety of foliage, and even the air is full of the 
fragrance of the blooming, blossoming flowers. 
One questions whether the Garden of Eden was 
ever more beautiful. It has flowers, plants, and 
trees from almost every land. There is one called 
the Tree of Heaven, brought from China. I was 
allowed to pluck a leaf from this tree ; but after 
a time the little leaf withered and dried up, just 
as any other leaf will do. It bears a splendid 
name, but must perish as all nature will, sooner 
or later. But there is a Tree of Heaven not 
seen by mortal eyes, that you may see when mor- 

89 



90 The Radiant I^ifb. 

tality's veil is laid aside, if you have been honest 
and true to God ; and although you pluck its 
leaves, they will not wither though plucked ten 
thousand years. You may eat of its fruit, and 
know not disease or weakness ; and may rest be- 
neath its shade, and know you are in the garden 
of your God. If we could but understand with 
these dull ears, we might hear the plants, flowers, 
trees, brooks, and waving grass chanting the 
music of heaven and worshiping God in ecstasy 
of devotion. 

Come with me, and we will visit a beautiful 
home. It is the cotter's Saturday night. The 
hard, toilsome work of the week is over ; supper 
is done, and the family is gathered around a 
great, glowing fire, gazing at its fiery tongues, 
stinging, biting and lashing each other, while 
about the room some are rehearsing old legends, 
telling stories, reading, singing, popping corn, 
eating apples ; in fact, every one is having a jolly 
time. After awhile the aged sire, the priestlike 
father, takes a large book from the center-table, 
and, adjusting his glasses, says, "I will read 
now," and everywhere the noise ceases, and all 
eyes are turned to the gray-haired sage. Per- 
chance he reads Jesus' Denunciation of the Hypo- 
crites, The Sermon on the Mount, The Parable 
of the Ten Virgins, or about The Good Samari- 



The Worship of God. 91 

tan ; and then, laying aside the. book with 
judicious care, " Xet us worship God!' he says, 
with solemn air." If this scene is not on the 
border of the Promised Land, then even the 
angels are deceived. 

A grand truth was uttered by Dr. Johnson 
when he said, '*I have lived long enough to know 
what I did not at one time believe — that no 
society can be upheld in happiness and honor 
without the sentiment of religion." And long 
before him the Persian poet, Saadi, said, ''I fear 
God, and, next to God, I chiefly fear him who 
fears Him not." 

The worship of God has been the support 
in many a life when great calamities and adversi- 
ties swept over the soul. Some people pray in 
times of trouble who never pray at any other 
time. Melanchthon has said, "Trouble and per- 
plexity drive me to prayer, and prayer drives 
away perplexity and trouble." 

God is ever mindful of His children, and 
desires that all shall live, be happy, and prosper 
in their every-day life. This is beautifully por- 
trayed in these lines : 

''I know not where His islands lift 
Their fronded palms in air; 
I only know I can not drift 
Beyond His love and care." 

7 



92 Thk Radiant Life. 

The evening of life is coming, when each and 
all must lay down the tools and instruments of 
business, and stand face to face, naked of mortali- 
ty, with the record of their daily deeds. This will 
be no time for petty excuses or trivial reasons for 
what you have, or have not, done. This is the 
spirit-land, and you must now be weighed in the 
balance of eternity, and be measured by the 
matchless Gospel of Jesus Christ. But how glori- 
ous if on earth you learned to warm your soul 
at the altar of the Lord, and then have His 
blessed presence in the chilly hour of death, 
when earthly fires go out, voices give no sound, 
your friends draw back from the river's brink, 
and you must cross the dark waters alone. In 
this hour the sweet comfort of the worship of 
God will be more holy, blessed, and sustaining 
than ever in all your past experience. Every 
song of Zion sung ; every prayer uttered ; every 
season of meditation; every temptation over- 
come; every longing after immortality, was but 
the leading up to this hour to make death easy 
and your flight from this veil of tears the supreme 
and crowning time of your soul. 

Fathers and mothers, while you are strong 
and the home is unbroken, teach your children 
the help and need of prayer and worship. Have 
a family altar, and gather around it at least once 



The Worship of God. 93 

each day. The best inheritance you can ever 
leave your children is the worship of God. It is 
better than an education, wealth, a trade, or a 
popular name. The recollection of hearing 
father and mother pray will follow the child 
through life, and will be most cheering and 
ennobling when days are dark, the heart is sad, 
and friends have proven untrue. The prayers 
learned at mother's knee can never be forgotten. 
I will insert a few prayers that I hope will be 
a blessing to some one. 

^'Father, make my spirit pure, 
And help me every day; 
Bless father, mother, little John, 
And take our sins away.'* 

And now, dear Lord, bless every one, 

And may Thy love abound, 
Until throughout the whole wide world 

The love of Christ be found. Amen." 

"Now dear Lord, to Thee we pray, 
Keep us all the livelong day. 
Let us not forget Thy love, 
Fit our souls for heaven above. 
Oft we long to be with Thee, 
O help us later Christ to see. Amen." 

"Now dear Lord, I come to Thee : 
Take my life, and let it be 
Always full of love for Thee. 



94 Thk Radiant Lifb. 

While I sleep be ever near, 

When I wake be there to cheer ; 

When I die, let heaven be 

My everlasting home with Thee. Amen." 

"Father, I come to Thee to-night ; 
Make my soul all pure and bright. 

Help all the people, everywhere. 
To come to Thee for evening prayer. 

In health and sickness lead us on 
Until forever victory 's won. 

Sustain and help us all the way, 

Until we 've reached eternal day. Amen." 

"My blessed Lord! 
While I close my eyes in sleep, 
Let the guardian angels keep 
Papa, mamma, and us all. 
From the dangers that befall 
The sinful horde ! Amen." 



Pure religion is not the doing of many things 
in the Church, and thus becoming overtaxed, 
burdened, cross, and complaining; but it is the 
doing of everything you do in the same sweet 
Christian spirit. Remember the beautiful devo- 
tion of Mary, the sister of Lazarus, who lived 
at Bethany. It was when Jesus was at a feast 
in their home, and while seated at the table, that 



Thk Worship of God. 95 

Mary came in with a pound of ointment of spike- 
nard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, 
and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Isn 't 
this a beautiful golden deed? Here is a heart 
so full of the desire to worship the Christ that 
her devotion is overflowing. You say this was a 
little thing. Nay, verily; no grander deed is 
found in the annals of illustrious men than this 
act of Mary's anointing the Christ before his 
crucifixion. (John xii, 3-8.) 

The worship of God fits the soul for the 
greatest enjoyment and comfort in every phase 
of man's existence. 

'The way is long, my Father, and my soul 
Longs for the rest and quiet of the goal ; 
While yet I journey through this weary land, 
Keep me from wandering, Father, take my hand." 



TRAINED IN A HOME OF PRAYER. 

There is no safer path to go, 

No higher theme to prize, 
Than low at mother's knee to learn 

How prayer will make you rise. 

-No sweeter thought can memory bring 

To you in after years. 
Than childhood's prayer at mother's knee, 
To dry your burning tears. 

Then let communion with your Lord 

Begin each passing day. 
And you will find that blessings go 

Where prayer has paved the way. 

Better be trained for worship and prayer, 

And in all else be poor, 
Than to carry a load of wealth through life, 

And have shame sit by your door. 

Better not wear a college title. 

Showing your high degrees. 
And pass through life devoid of God, 

Weeping tears that freeze. 

Better be born in a cottage low, 

And all your life be poor, 
Than move among the rich and gay. 

And be prayerless evermore. 

96 



Trained in a Home of Prayer. 97 

Better be trained in a home of prayer, 

Like Abraham's servant of old, 
Who went in search for his master's son, 

To bring home a wife to the fold. 

In the far-off city of Nahor 

He stopped to spend the night ; 
And as he watered his camels there, 

He prayed to God for light. 

The answer came, for God had heard 

The prayer of Eliezer ; 
And he went back a happy man 

Making Isaac even happier; 

For a bride was found for him, 

The beautiful young "Rebeker;" 
And down to the land of Palestine 

Went she, and the servant with her. 

Better, yea, better die without a name. 
And sleep in the unlettered grave, 

Than drift away from a loving Lord, 
And die a rich old knave. 

Many who are born in a terrace house, 
And rocked in the cradle of wealth, 

Have gone to the depths of a sinful life. 
And perished in broken health. 

Better than you, O youth sublime ! 

Learn prayer at mother's knee. 
Than carouse with the boys late at night. 

And come back from a drunken spree. 



98 The Radiant Life. 

Better that time should hide his face, 
And weep with a mother sad, 

Than that her boy go down in sin, 
And drift away to the bad. 

Better that you know how to pray, 
When death on lightning speed 

Shall bear a loved one away from thee, 
Riding his iron black steed. 

Better when the days are passing by, 

And all are growing old, 
That family prayer be oft observed 

By all in your own household. 

Of all that 's good and pure and great 

That we in life may gain. 
The prayer that 's taught at mother's knee 

Bears sheaves of golden grain. 

Then father, mother, sweetheart dear, 

I 'd beg of you to-day. 
That as you journey on through life, 

You '11 not forget to pray. 

Let daily prayer your custom be 

Along life's rugged way; 
However great the trials may come, 

O, do n't forget to pray ! 

The blessed comfort of your Lord 

Will be most dear and sweet, / 

If prayer and worship be your food 
Around God's mercy seat. 




HOUR OF WORSHIP. 



GOD'S MATCHLESS LOVE. 

It is easy for us to love the clean, bright, 
happy, pure, and good people ; but how very hard 
to love the dirty, mean, vile, cruel, unkind, dis- 
sipated, and sinful people ! How we do shudder 
and draw from the base and vulgar ; and how 
unlovable they appear ! But God loves the un- 
lovely, the base, impure, unholy, shameful, the 
depraved, and lost. How can these persons be 
loved ? Surely, 

*There 's a wideness in God's mercy, 

Like the wideness of the sea ; 
There 's a kindness in His justice 
Which is more than liberty." 

Such grace as to mankind abounds 
In all the world can not be found 
As God bestows on mortal men, 
To crown them with His diadem. 

How is it possible for God to love everybody ? 
The poet answers in a glad refrain, — 

"For the love of God is broader 

Than the measure of man's mind, 
And the heart of the eternal 
Is most wonderfully kind." 

99 

Lore. 



loo The Radiant Lifk. 

If we would only love like God, and show 
mercy as He does, what a happier place this old 
world would be! There is a marvelous trans- 
forming power about the work of God's love. 
The blackest, lowest, most depraved and shameful 
character has been touched by the finger of God's 
love, and the whole nature has been transformed 
into a beautiful life ; and now, instead of malice, 
hatred, prejudice, cursings, immorality, and im- 
purity, there are praises to God, kindness, charity, 
brotherly love, and purity of heart and life. The 
old prophet foreshadows this when he says, "For 
brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring 
silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron." 
(Isa. Ix, 17.) 

God not only loves every human being, but 
He is anxious to make each one happy, both now 
and forever. For to this end He has placed the 
sun, moon, and stars in their places, and has 
caused them to serve man's purpose ; and then 
He has built, somewhere beyond the blue sky, "a 
house not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens." (2 Cor. v, i.) 

You will never be your best in any condition 
in life until God's love has entered and changed 
your heart. 

While at the National Epworth League Con- 
vention in Denver, Colo., in 1904, it was my 



God's Matchi^kss Lovk. ioi 

esteemed privilege to hear Samuel H. Hadley 
tell, in his sympathetic, childlike way, how he met 
Jesus Christ in the old AIcAuley Mission in New 
York City, and how God's matchless love 
changed his whole life ; he was a drunken thief 
and a miserable wretch when Jerry McAuley led 
him to accept Jesus as his personal Savior. I 
shall never forget his earnest portrayal of God's 
love to vile sinners. He died not long ago, happy 
in his blessed Lord. In his last moments the 
doctors saw his lips move, and, leaning over to 
listen, they heard him whisper, ''Aly bums, my 
poor bums, who shall care for them?" and then 
his spirit passed out to join the great Spirit in 
an eternity of endless love. What God did for 
Samuel H. Hadley, He did for Sam Jones, John 
B. Gough, and thousands of others who were as 
deep in the mire of sin as man could go. After 
all it takes but a touch and taste of God's love, 
and the whole life is changed. You can always 
tell when God's matchless love gets into a man's 
heart, because he at once takes greater interest 
in his family and home ; he begins to pay up his 
old debts ; do better work at his trade ; treat his 
fellow-men better, and becomes a kind, loving- 
father and husband and a good citizen. 

While traveling through the Yellowstone 
National Park in 1906, I was greatly impressed 



I02 Thk Radiant Lifk. 

with the Great Falls of the Grand Canyon. The 
Yellowstone River winds its way through this 
canyon after plunging over a precipice into the 
valley 360 feet below, and, roaring like a thou- 
sand locomotives, it hastens on to the sea; this 
is the Great Falls. Then, when one climbs up 
to Inspiration Point and looks down into the 
deep, picturesque valley, the beauty transcends 
an artist's description. While seated on this lofty 
place, the Mystic Muse whispered to me, 

Far below, the sparkling water 
Sings the song that nature taught her; 
Plays and dances all the way. 
Never sad but always gay. 

But God's love is a greater power than the 
Great Falls, or even Niagara ; for sometime these 
falls will cease, the streams dry up with fervent 
heat, the bright stars, moon, and sun flicker and 
go out forever. Eternity alone can value the 
lofty theme of love, God's love. 

Without the impression of this wonderful 
love, we become cold, sordid, unsympathetic, un- 
kind, hating others and even ourselves. Just as 
the plant needs the warm, melting sun, so man 
needs the tender touch of love. We can not live 
a>nd be happy without it. Go into a crowd of 
men where there is cursing and vileness, and you 



God's Matchless Lovk. 103 

at once feel that they need something to lift 
them out of their degradation. And there is no 
other force in all the universe that can do this 
but love. Great and charming is the power and 
beauty of woman's love; but this love of God 
surpasses that of woman's ; yea, it is the first 
stone in the foundation of the world and system 
of worlds. "It is an attribute of God Himself;" 
yea, it is God, for ''God is love." (i John iv, 8.) 

I am come to-day, kind reader, that I may 
lift to your parched lips this sparkling cup of 
Heaven's love, and, drinking it, your heartaches 
of sin shall all be o'er, and a sweet assurance of 
pardon and redemption from your sins will come 
into your soul. 

I knew you would drink of this cup. I '11 be 
going now, and leave you alone with your 
God ; for you have met Him face to face to-day. 



JUDGMENT DAYS. 

Thi:re; is ''one far-off divine event, to which 
the whole creation moves/' and this is the final 
judgment-day, the last court that a soul will 
face. To this day are all the days of time point- 
ing. The slow tread of justice will at last over- 
take the lawbreaker. Here will be gathered all 
people of all ages and all countries, to appear 
before God and answer for the deeds done in 
their bodies, whether they be good or bad. This 
will be the final settlement of all unpaid debts, 
and all unforgiven sins will be punished accord- 
ing to the universal law of God. Here, 

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, 
- The pangs of disprized love, the law's delay, 
The insolence of office, and the spurns 
That patient merit of the unworthy takes," 

shall all be weighed in the scales of perfect 
justice; and deeds long since forgotten will flash 
through the memory as though they were just 
committed. The heart that has carried spite, 
malice, licentiousness, and hatred can no longer 
hide its dire condition. 

104 



Judgment Days. 105 

Here that one who for years on earth bore 
the burden of injustice and the slow process of 
the enforcement of righteous laws, will leap for 
joy to see justice fall at last with heavy hand 
upon the transgressor. O, Judgment-day, what 
a revelation you will be ! What covered, hidden, 
forgotten sins will be revealed and published ! 
Here thousands who passed on earth in the best 
society, and received honor and respect for their 
seeming noble acts, will be shown to have been 
the blackest of devils, and will be banished to 
the seventh hell, to spend eternity with the class 
of people with whom they deserve to be because 
of their depraved characters. 

Wealth, high position, and a great name often 
cover a multitude of sins in this world ; but on 
that notable day all the titles, accomplishments, 
earthly pomp, and splendor and wealth will have 
no prestige in the glory-land; but empty-handed, 
unattended, without even the formality of an 
introduction, and with the feeling of a beggar 
and tramp, you will enter the brilliant hall of 
absolute justice, and approach the throne of your 
Lord, and hear Gabriel say, ''Register your name 
here !" If you have never felt your littleness 
before, you will feel it now. If you never thought 
of this scene and time, think of it to-day ; for it 
is surely coming, and may be close at hand. We 



io6' The Radiant IvIFE. 

are told that nothing will be hid or covered from 
the eye of the Just Judge. *'Does that mean that 
all my thoughts and deeds are known and 
recorded?" some one asks. That is exactly what 
the Bible says and what God means. Each day 
you are writing your record, and the years of 
passing time can not efiface the writing. The 
carved letters upon granite, bronze, and gold 
will fade, grow dim and crumble away; but this 
record written by an Unseen Hand, will stand 
the test of all the elements. 

But this earth has many judgment-days. The 
young boy who leaves school at the age of twelve, 
and goes out to work for money or drift like a 
sailless ship, has then a judgment-day; for the 
influence of that act and decision will follow him 
forever. By so doing he limits himself ; circum- 
scribes his success ; classifies himself with the 
ignorant, and too often the debased ; bars him- 
self from the refined and cultured ; yea, he has 
fixed the bounds of his pleasures, associates, and 
degrees of happiness. He made a judgment-day 
when he decided to leave school. 

I was once in a court-room when a young 
man was brought before the judge for horse 
stealing. ''Guilty or not guilty?" said the magis- 
trate. "Guilty," said the criminal. He was at 
once sentenced for several years at hard labor 



Judgment Days. 107 

in the penitentiary. You say, "That was a judg- 
ment-day.'' Yes, but it was also a judgment-day 
when he was alone, and perhaps a prattling boy 
in his father's house, when he decided that he 
would get something for nothing; and he took 
an apple, a nickel, or a pin. This fixed and 
prophesied many a judgment-day for his soul. 

The universe is built upon this inherent 
truth and principle, that the transgressor must 
sometime suffer for the violated laws of the 
physical, mental, moral, and spiritual life; and 
whenever these laws pertaining to man are 
violated, the wheels of the universe move, and 
the register is made at the seat of God's govern- 
ment, to await the satisfaction of the law. 

Some day, though distant it may be, a solemn 
voice throughout the realms of nature will sound 
and resound, ''Arise, ye dead, and come to judg- 
ment." Men have built and provided prisons in 
which to keep dangerous, unsafe characters — 
such as the thief, perjurer, defaulter, and mur- 
derer — in order that good, law-abiding people 
may be safe and their homes protected. The 
good citizen need not be herded like cattle to 
keep him decent and law-abiding, but may go 
and come when he pleases, because he does right. 
But there are many criminals who walk our 
streets and move about in the best society, un- 



io8 Th^ Radiant Lifk. 

known and unsuspected. The officers of the law 
have not caught them ; the court has had no 
opportunity of pronouncing sentence upon them. 
So we beHeve, and so the Bible teaches, that 
there must be a final judgment-day when all 
wrong-doers shall be tried, and every sin be 
punished. The Great Judge of heaven and earth 
will try all people who have ever lived, or ever 
will live, and send each one to his final abode, 
according to the established laws of all the worlds 
and system of worlds. If law did not rule in all 
things in God's creation, there would be chance, 
chaos, sudden and unexpected ruin. 

According to the marvelous wisdom of God, 
heaven and hell are fixed places and conditions, 
and are taught at every step of human progress 
and by every individual act of the administration 
of the laws of men. Why lock up the thief, per- 
jurer, defaulter, adulterer, and murderer, here 
in this world, if you are going to turn all these 
loose in the other world, to live and move with 
the pure and good, from whom they were 
ostracized on earth ? These criminals and trans- 
gressors have a better right to go free here 
than they have to go free in eternity. Every 
idea of reason, law, and the Bible tells us that it 
is an outrage on humanity to punish evil-doers 
in this world if there is no punishment hereafter ; 



JuDGMKNT Days. 109 

because at least one-half the criminals are never 
found out and punished. And we do wrong to 
punish a few, while the others escape. God's 
laws of the universe call for justice, and have 
been calling ever since Adam and Eve disobeyed 
in the Garden of Eden, and will continue to 
call until at the final judgment-day everything 
in all the worlds in all the ages has been settled, 
and settled rightly and justly. Every decision 
a man or woman ever makes, or every deed ever 
committed, is a judgment-day to that soul. 

How quickly by one act or deed a person can 
destroy all that has been gained in years of 
right living-! Not long ago I knew a man 
honored and respected, passing as a good citizen 
and upright in business, who was caught when 
the officers of the law were looking for a thief. 
This man a thief? No one would have dreamed 
that he was the man who had been taking money 
from the safe for months. But it was so, and 
he himself confessed. 

Many high society people would fall ''like a 
falling star" if their real lives were known to 
the public. A woman of advanced years told 
me, a few days ago, that she owed her broken- 
down health to the fact that in youth she attended 
a great many dances ; they were not public 
dances, but were held in very respectable homes, 



no Thk Radiant lyiFK. 

and people who attended were among the best. 
Yet in pursuit of these social pleasures she was 
exposed to the inclement weather, and her health 
was partially broken down ; and so this wife and 
mother has suffered a thousand pains and heart- 
aches caused by a respectable dance. Do you 
think she would say there is no harm in dancing? 
Nay, verily. Going to dances was a bitter judg- 
ment-day for this woman, and the seed for her 
suffering was born in the dance parlor. Still 
there are those who claim that dancing is good 
for one's health ; no harm in it ; pleasant pastime ; 
and you must go, if you would move in the most 
respectable society. Nevertheless there are some 
of these seemingly respectable people who are 
on a straight road to hell. 

This so-called seemingly most respectable 
society has become a farce and disgrace. But 
there are thousands of others who are coming 
^ swiftly to her miserable condition. No warning 
will stop them ; no kind word change their course. 
For they are bent on pleasure, and court dancing 
as the surest passport to its attainment. 

"But pleasures are like poppies spread; 
You seize the flower, its bloom is shed; 
Or like the snowfalls in the river, 
A moment white— then melts forever.'* 

— Burns. 



Judgment Days. hi 

Stop ! Think ! Reason ! Observe ! Look 
ahead ! And then, if you will go on, go with 
your eyes wide open, ready and willing to suffer 
the pangs of poor health, the shame of a neg- 
lected home, "the heartache, and the thousand 
natural shocks'' from which a noble, modest 
woman would draw back ; go quickly, and indulge 
your coveted pleasure ; for soon the hounds of 
sorrow and regret will be upon your track, and 
repentance gush forth from your heart; but all 
this will not bring back to you what you have 
lost, or restore your health, or give you peace 
again. 

I w^as born, raised, and trained in a Christian 
home, and taught to bitterly loathe, hate, and 
despise the card-table and the dance, and I pray 
God that I may never get so old that I will give 
up a single spark of hatred I have held against 
these sinful practices. May these amusements 
speedily be branded with shame by all people, 
and relegated to the regions of hell, where they 
rightly belong, and ought to have been kept ! 

There will be many things to be adjusted at 
that last great day. There will be many debts 
paid that the debtor never imagined he would 
have to pay ; .but all debts must be paid at last. 

I see, by faith, the Great Judge, Christ our 
Lord, with the scales of justice in His hands, 



112 Thk Radiant Life. 

with the written record of every person, ready to 
put the soul in one balance and the written record 
in the other, that all the uncounted host before 
Him may see that each one has his just deserts. 
''And I saw a great white throne, and Him that 
sat on it, from whose face the earth and the 
heaven fled away ; and there was found no place 
for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, 
stand before God ; and the books were opened ; 
and another book was opened, which is the book 
of life ; and the dead were judged out of those 
things which were written in the books, accord- 
ing to their works. And the sea gave up the 
dead which were in it ; and death and hell de- 
livered up the dead which were in them ; and 
they were judged every man according to their 
works." (Rev. xx, 11-13.) 

Like the black clouds driven by the sweeping 
winds, we are swiftly passing to this notable 
gathering, ''where each shall take his place in 
the silent halls" of the last court that will ever 
be convened. Get ready for the judgment-day 
by living for Christ each day of life, and, dying, 
you shall find that death is but the opening of the 
door from time to eternity, from earth to the 
splendid home and palace of God's children. 



THE POSSIBILITIES OF A LIFE. ' 

''O World ! as God has made it all is beauty ; 
And knowing this, is love, and love is duty." 

— Browning. 

He who has a great soul will grapple with 
the seeming impossible ; will conquer defeat, slay 
his doubts, chain the evil genius of procrastina- 
tion, and, in the face of insurmountable difficul- 
ties, will climb toward God and heaven ; for 
"faith can not be unanswered," but cries out, 
"It shall be done sometime, somewhere." (C. D. 
Tillman.) 

The majority of people in this world are 
born poor; it has always been so, and always 
will be, for Jesus has said, "For ye have the 
poor with you always." (Mark xiv, 7.) These 
must often deny themselves the necessities of Ufe, 
and struggle on year after year to keep the home 
and family together. 

They are handicapped, limited, and frequently 
chagrined. So many comforts must be denied. 
And sometimes these poor laborers give up life'e 

113 



114 Thk Radiant Life. 

effort and die in shame by their own hands. The 
poor boy gets his education, if he has any at all, 
alone, in some dark, cold room, after the family 
has gone to bed, poring over a single and only 
book he has, night after night, by the light of 
a dim candle. The poet has given us a graphic 
scene of poverty as seen in the Irish famine of 
1846: 

"Give me three grains of corn, mother, — 
Only three grains of corn : 
It will keep the little life I have 
Till the coming of the morn. 

I am dying of hunger and cold, mother, — 

Dying of hunger and cold ; 
And half the agony of such a death 

My lips have never told." 

—A. B. Edwards. 

And yet, v^hile this starving experience was 
going on, there were many people in England and 
Ireland who were lounging in ease and wealth, 
but were too selfish to help the hungry. Poverty 
is always an unwelcome and uninvited com- 
panion, and is too often considered a disgrace; 
but when it is linked with ignorance and vice, 
it is one of the blackest combinations of hell. 
' But hard, unwelcome, and undesirable as poverty 
may be, from its paths have come forth earth's 
greatest and best men and women. Poverty is 




POSSIBILITIES. 



ThK P0SSIBII.ITIES OF A IvIFH. 115 

often the motive power for the young to cause 
them to work hard and climb to lasting fame 
and greatness. Poverty can not chain or slay 
the one who is determined to rise and succeed. 
From the cradle of poverty have come our richest 
merchants, our safest bankers, the most brilliant 
orators, statesmen, clergymen, and leaders in all 
the affairs of business. 

Whence came Paul, Luther, Savonarola, 
Gladstone, John Wesley, John Law, Franklin, 
Grant, Lincoln, Cleveland, Peter Cooper, John- 
Bunyan, Garfield, the Rothschilds, McKinley, 
Burns, Kingsley, Byron, Browning, and many 
other great leaders ? These all came up from the 
paths of poverty, and have gained honor, fame, 
and greatness by hard work, sacrifice, and true 
fidelity. 

Young people, be inspired at the mention of 
these illustrious names, and vow that you will 

"Be noble, and the nobleness that lies 
In other men, sleeping but never dead. 
Will rise in majesty to meet their own." 

— Lowell. 

After all, what are the possibilities of just 
one Hfe? It may be the life of a stalk of corn, 
cabbage-head, acorn, flower, bird, dog, horse, a 
boy or girl, man or woman, — whichever it may 
be, it has much depending upon it. We can not 



ii6 The Radiant Life. 

even guess what the results of one Hfe may be. 
The beautiful flower, sweet and fragrant, may 
touch the cold, hardened heart of some scoffer, 
and teach him the love, mercy, and beauty of 
God, and bring him to repentance and to prayer. 
And the little mocking-bird, cheerily singing in 
great glee, may melt some saddened heart, and 
cause some poor soul to surmount its obstacles 
and ever after lead a happy life. The acorn may 
grow to be a mighty oak, then be made into 
lumber, and be used in building a fine house, 
church, ship, Pullman sleeper, a writing-table, 
or to make penholders like the one I now have 
in my hand. 

Then, the dog and horse many a time, with 
almost human intelligence, have saved the lives 
of their masters. Ah, the lessons we may gather 
from nature! O, the tenderness we may sip 
from the fragile flower, so lovely is its beauty! 
Lord, teach us all to be tender and loving, that 
our lives may all be fragrant, like the little pansy. 
But what about the babe that crawls upon the 
floor? He is so helpless! A thousand dangers 
lurk about his cradle; but he welcomes danger 
as gladly as he does his dinner. Unmindful of 
a dozen warnings, he creeps on toward the hot 
stove, the lamp, and the open cellar. But, after 
all, wrapped up in his little being are the greatest 



The P0SSIB11.1T1ES OF A Life. 117 

possibilities, either for good or evil, either for 
honor or disgrace. Surely, 

" Men at some time are masters of their fates ; 
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, 
But in ourselves, that we are underlings." 

— Shakespeare. 

I know a man who lost his parents when a 
small boy ; and he was taken to an orphan's 
home, reared and educated, until he was old 
enough to enter business and make his own way. 
He applied himself to his work, was industrious 
and careful, and he is now a division superin- 
tendent of one of the great railroads of our 
country, and rides in his special car. Who says 
there is not a chance for the poor boy of to-day ? 
Never was the opportunity greater than it is 
to-day for honest, energetic young, men to rise 
from the lowest to the highest positions in both 
business and public work. 

Men who are qualified, trustworthy, and free 
from the use of alcoholic liquors can command 
almost any position or salary they wish. But 
the fact is, there is a great moving mass of men 
that are whisky-soaked, unreliable, and only 
ordinary in their line of work, and live from 
hand-to-mouth, and every year it is harder for 
them to make a living. Skilled workmen are 



ii8 Thk Radiant lyiFK. 

pushing to the front in all kinds of labor. The 
expert and specialist can generally name his place 
and wages. Strive to stand at the head of your 
business or profession. But too many, when they 
fail once, lose interest and get discouraged, and 
simply drift on in a careless way of doing things, 
or commit some desperate deed ; but, 

" Beware of desperate steps ! The darkest day, 
Live till to-morrow, wall have passed away.'* 

— Cowper. 

It is indeed wonderful what can be accom- 
plished by one person. Take, for instance, Jerry 
McAuley. For years whisky prostituted him in 
crime and shame ; but at last he was converted 
and surrendered to God, and then spent sixteen 
years in mission work in New York City. God 
blessed his work ; and many hardened people — 
men, women, thieves, gamblers, desperadoes — 
all came to hear him, and thousands were saved 
from their sins. Even professing Christians came 
in, and they, too, were converted. One night 
Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Whitmore — rich, dancing, 
theater-going, card-playing Christians — came in 
to see the novelty of a saved thief leading a 
religious meeting, and they themselves got con- 
verted. Would that all such professing Christians 
would get converted ! And it was not long after 
this when ]\Irs. Whitmore founded the ''Door of 



The Possibii^itiks of a I^ifk. 119 

Hope for Fallen Women," and thousands have 
been reached and saved by this consecrated 
woman. 

McAuley led Samuel H. Hadley to Christ, 
who became a devoted Christian, and carried on 
the mission work for many years after McAuley's 
death. While it is grand to know what great 
good one earnest Christian man or woman may 
do, yet it is equally sad to see what shame and 
corruption has been caused by one mean person. 
If the people would only consider, ''No man 
ever enjoyed doing wrong since the world 
began.'' (John Ruskin.) 

But long and lasting is the sorrow that fol- 
lows sinful pleasures, and must be borne by 
aching hearts. We are many times disappointed 
or surprised by what one person has done. For 
the most unpromising, least talented and un- 
noticed boy has outstripped and surpassed many 
another who has had every reason for success 
and greatness in the beginning. Some boys de- 
pend on their fathers to carry them on to good 
positions. But the time has come when a fellow 
must be able to show what he can do! What 
he says he can do is perhaps put to the test; on 
his own recommendation he is received as a 
probationer, and in a few months his work be- 
comes his passport to remain or to seek a new 



120 The Radiant Life. 

job. Merit is what counts to-day. The whole 
problem of success is bound up in a firm, stanch 
determination to ''strike till the last armed foe 
expires" (Halleck), whether it be a well- 
equipped army, a struggle against poverty to get 
an education, a proposition in geometry, a tussle 
with the blue-devils, a combat with failure and 
defeat, or a battle against the invisible hosts of 
sin. Gracious boy or girl, be not ruled by a 
frenzied mob ; nor be frightened by the jeers, 
scoffing, or threats of the oppressor or destroyer ; 
and be not enticed by pleasure, or deceived and 
contaminated by vice ; but with gentleness, calm 
hope, and faith in God, go forth to despise the 
dishonorable deeds and to spurn the guile and 
graft of this avaricious age, and your footsteps 
shall echo the tread of your lofty life for ten 
thousand years to come, and all good men will 
call you blessed, and your possibilities shall be 
unlimited, and undying fame will keep green 
your grave, and you shall 

"Go where glory waits thee, 

But while fame elates thee, 

O, still remember me !" 

— Thomas Moore. 



THE SUNSHINE LIFE. 

'I wonder if ever a song was sung, 

But the singer's heart sang sweeter ! 
I wonder if ever a hymn was sung, 

But the thought surpassed the meter ! 
I wonder if ever a sculptor wrought 
Till the cold stone echoed his ardent thought ! 
Or if ever a painter, with light and shade. 
The dream of his inmost soul betrayed?'' 
— Joanna Baillie. 

One: of Heaven's richest blessings is that of 
being born with a happy, sunshiny disposition; 
it is always with you, and lends inspiration to 
the darkest hours. And then it is so sad to be 
born with a sordid, unlovely disposition. Eternity 
alone can reveal the benediction that sunshiny 
lives have been to this old world. 

It is so blessed to be cheerful, and to be able 
to see some bright side in the midst of sorrows. 
For it just seems that everywhere you go, and 
whoever you meet, you are told the same sad 
story of sorrow, sickness, burdens, and troubles. 
We know these things exist, and that many 
lives are almost ready to fall under their heavy 
loads; and then the same persons to whom you 
tell your troubles may already have enough -to 

121 



122 The Radiant Life. 

break their hearts ; and yours make their sorrows 
heavier. I have said many times, '*0, my Lord, 
let me find some one who will cheer me up, 
instead of making my own heart sadder by telling 
me the painful heartaches of his own experi- 
ence/' But, after all, every life has had its pur- 
poses shattered, and every home has ' been 
darkened by the shadow of sickness, death, and 
sin. In every village, town, and city, there are 
many unhappy, broken-hearted people. The 
bloom is gone from the cheek and the smile from 
the face ; indeed, it seems that many have never 
smiled at all, but are simply eking out a miser- 
able existence. Did it ever occur to you that you 
could lift the veil from many of these burdened 
souls by letting a little sunshine out of your life ? 
There is marvelous power in a smile and a 
cheerful word. Emerson says, *'Every man is a 
divinity in disguise." Have a smile for every- 
body; for what's the use of being sour and 
surly? . 

Every time you get mad and feel mean it 
makes you think every one you meet is just like 
you ; and this makes you feel meaner still. You 
may be poor, very poor ; have little education and 
few friends ; born to labor every day ; you may 
never be able to have all the necessities of life; 
but in the face of all this, you can smile and 



The Sunshine Life. 123 

make the angels your constant companions. Of 
course, it takes time to learn life's lessons, as the 
poet says, 

"Till this heroic lesson thou hast learned, 
To frown at pleasure, and to smile at pain." 
—Dr. E. D. Young. 

It will not cost you anything, so try smiling 
for a day, and who but God can tell the good 
that you may do ? for it 's 

"Just to be cheery when things go wrong; 
Just to drive sadness away with a song; 
Whether the hour is dark or bright. 
Just to be loyal to God and the right ; 
Just to believe that God knows best ; 
Just in His promise ever to rest ; 
Just to let love be our daily key — 
This is God's will for you and for me." 

— Epworth Herald. 

Singing and smiling should go hand in hand ; 
and when these two godly elements are united 
in your heart, they will chase the devil away 
every time. 

The Muse so sweetly whispers, — 

"On parents' knees, a naked, new-born child, 
Weeping thou sat'st when all around thee smiled : 
So live that, sinking in thy last long sleep, 
Calm thou may'st smile when all around thee weep." 

— Sir W. Jones. 



124 'I'hk Radiant Lifk. 

God intended this to be a happy world, and 
all His handiwork shows us that He is still busy 
striving to eliminate unhappiness, and make this 
an earthly paradise from which human beings 
may be translated into the regions of unending 
happiness. I remember a little girl who lived in a 
city where I was a pastor, who always smiled 
and seemed so happy, it did me a bushel of good 
to meet her. 

How very true this is, ''If you want people 
to smile, smile yourself ; if you want them to 
frown and quarrel, frown and quarrel yourself/' 
Conditions of life : try smiling out loud some day, 
and be happy-hearted like the chirping birds. 
Laugh until it touches your liver, and you 'II 
feel better than you have felt for a long time. 

Now, — 

"If there were smiles for sale 
At some market where 
The rich, the poor, the low, the high. 
Might hurry with their change to buy, — 
What crowds would gather there! 

Yet there are smiles enough, 

And each might have his share, 
If every man would do or say 
.One — just one — kind thing each day 

To lift some other's care.*' 

— S. E. Kiser. 



The Sunshine IvIFE. 125 

Be a bright, cheerful, happy soul. Bear no 
grudge, and think no evil. In the winding laby- 
rinths through life think your thoughts among 
the stars ; chain your heart to the tread of the 
Prince of Peace ; drink sunshine from the King's 
cup ; mount up like the eagle on the wings of 
purity, faith, hope, and love ; carry the marks 
of discipleship of your Lord wherever you go, 
and make every step you take a conquest over the 
deadly forces of sin. 

Be full and bubbling over with sunshine. 
Brush down the cobwebs out of your hair; for 
the blues have built their nest up there. Smile 
and laugh until the rays of the sun shout for joy. 

Smile and smile until you 're free, 

And time has chased the blues from thee. 



THE BETTER LAND. 

Somewhere beyond the sparkling sun, above 
the bright blue sky, but out in space — I know 
not where — they say there is a Better Land, 
where the pure and good, after their toils are 
o'er, shall gather and abide for evermore. It 
is called Paradise, the Better Land, the Promised 
Land, and Heaven ; but anyway it was made for 
God's children. But how many are searching 
for a better land here ! I saw a man, a few days 
ago, who left Indiana, went to Kansas, Colorado, 
Wyoming, on to California, back to North and 
South Dakota, and then back through Nebraska, 
and bought a ranch near Alliance. He was seek- 
ing a better country than the one he was leaving. 
So people are searching, — some for a better 
climate ; a better place to make money faster ; 
where they will not have to work so hard ; to 
regain their health, or to have better school and 
Church advantages. It was the love for gold 
and the hope of finding the fountain of perpetual 
youth that caused Ponce de Leon to leave Porto 
Rico in 1 5 13, and travel, visiting many islands, 
126 



Thk Better Land. 127 

drinking from a thousand springs, and bathing in 
many waters, hoping to reaHze his cherished 
vision. But after a long, long search, he re- 
turned to Cuba, forlorn, distressed, and much 
older, wounded by an arrow from an Indian, and 
having failed in his endeavor. 

And this is the sad experience of all those 
who look for constant happiness and immortality 
in the temporal things of this world. However, 
this is evident, that if people would use more 
water for bathing and medicinal purposes, there 
would be much less need for doctors. The water 
of the streams, springs, and in the earth, is a 
part of God's creation, and was made for man's 
use. Use it unstintingly. It has restorative and 
healing properties that are far better than drugs. 
Don't be afraid to use the pure, crystal water. 
The Israelites were disappointed in their journey 
to the Promised I^and, when, at Kadesh-Barnea, 
ten of the twelve spies sent out to explore the 
country, returned and described the giants in 
the country, and vowed that they could not con- 
quer them; and so they all turned back into the 
wilderness, where thousands died. They perished 
in sight of the better land because they believed 
men rather than God. And so do we often miss 
the goal, and lose the sweet assurance of God's 
presence by judging the spiritual by the temporal 



128 Thk Radiant Life. 

things of life. We think and meditate much 
about a better land beyond the river of death; 
but we sometimes overlook the supreme purpose 
of the mission of Jesus Christ on the earth. He 
came to alleviate sorrow and suffering here, to 
sympathize with us, and lead us on to victory, 
and make this earth the first heaven for humanity. 
The poet has caught the theme when he sings: 

*7esus, Savior, pilot me, 
Over life's tempestuous sea ; 
Unknown waves before me roll, 
Hiding rocks and treach'rous shoal; 
Chart and compass come from Thee; 
Jesus, Savior, pilot me." 

And this is exactly what Jesus came to do 
for us; and it is still His work to minister to 
humanity here and now. We may have the better 
land and better life to-day if we will enter into 
a perfect submission to the will of the Lord. It 
is so intended that we have blessed communion 
and peace with God on earth and be in His para- 
dise right here ; and then, though sometimes 

"The seat of earthly bliss be failed, 
A fairer paradise is founded now," 

— Milton. 

where all saints are gathering one by one. 
Kind readers, we make the better land ourselves. 



Thk Bkttkr Land. 129 

God's heaven would be spoiled if deeds of vice 
and shame were committed there. Life is what 
we make it. This is a beautiful world to those 
who are living a beautiful, lovely life. But there 
must be a holy of holies in every heart where 
the wSpirit of Jesus comes and talks with the soul, 
and makes it chaste and pure. And we must not 
hate, envy, gloat upon impurity, or commit sinful 
deeds; for these are all the harbingers of pain, 
shame, and death. 

Nor should we try to shift our responsibility. 
When a task comes to you, do it. Do not ask 
somebody else to do what you ought to do your- 
self. But it 's so easy to say, "O, get some one 
else to do this; there are many others who can 
do it better than L'' It is not a question as to 
who can do it best; for if that were true, then 
Christ Himself must come and do all the reform 
and Church work there is to be done. But rather, 
the question is, you ought to do what God wants 
you to do; and the invitation or call is generally 
a sufficient proof that you should do it. The 
Better Land is one in which each person does 
what he or she ought to do, and does not. try 
to shirk. Recent statistics show that there are 
thirty Christian governors in the United States, 
ruling as many commonwealths. And we are 
praying that the day is breaking when all officers 



130 Thk Radiant Lifk. 

and rulers in all countries everywhere, shall be 
devoted Christians. We can make this the Better 
Land of earth by each one living up to the truth 
that God has given us. Let us strive at greater 
things, and fill each day with radiant sunshine, 
and strew tender, loving acts along life's path- 
way. Make your living a holy experience, and 
be moved by unselfish thoughts, and help others 
to taste the fruits of the Better Land right here. 
Be large-hearted. Be broad-minded, and Spirit- 
actuated, and your stay on earth will be a blessed 
pilgrimage. 



THE EXALTED LIFE. 

I AM presuming a great life, symbolical of all 
that's good and pure ; beautiful, but firm and 
steadfast in thought, word and deed. It is above 
reproach; untouched by conceit; unmoved by 
calummy, hatred, or malice ; unprejudiced by 
feeling or sentiment; unswerving in aim, 'and 
uncompromising in the performance of duty; 
unfaltering for God ; unspotted by graft, and un- 
sullied by sin. This life, most gloriously tem- 
pered for heaven, surpasses all the flights of 
earthly charms and grandeur. It is full of hope 
and victory ; lofty in its ideals and fancies ; 
supreme in inspiration. It has a clarion's voice, 
and passes from, glory to glory. It does not ask 
the cost of doing right or wrong, but whispers, 
'1 can trust my Lord." It is not measured by 
houses, acres, dollars, name, titles, or high posi- 
tion ; but it is measured by acts of unselfishness, 
deeds of mercy, baskets of sunshine and good 
cheer, forgiveness, charity, high hopes, and a 
conquering faith in the Triune God. It finds 
delight in holy things, and longs to soar among 

131 



132 Thk Radiant Life. 

the angels, and with a thousand tongues sing the 
great Redeemer's praise. This I would term the 
Exalted Life. To find and live it is to be free 
from whatsoever destroys or makes unholy. 

You ask me, ''Are there those who live with 
this halo of glory about them in this world where 
there is so much to contaminate the soul life?" 
O, yes ! and have been, in all the ages past. Look 
around you, hunt them out, and they will bring 
sweetness and glory to your life. Why not? 
Is not this the Garden of God, where the plants 
must be tended and cultivated and made ready 
for that other garden in the paradise of God ? 

I now recall a man. Rev. J. A. Scamahorn, 
Gordon, Neb., who, I think, deserves a place in 
this category; a veteran of the Civil War; for 
fifteen months confined in Libby prison ; harassed 
by hunger and tortured by spite ; a wife and two 
children snatched away by death while he was 
in the army ; after the war, poor health com- 
pelling him to give up a lucrative position and 
move into another State ; and yet, after these 
and many other grievous trials, I know this grand 
old veteran to be one of the sweetest and hap- 
piest-spirited persons I ever met, and with Paul 
can say, ''Nay, in all these things we are more 
than conquerors through Him who loved us and 
gave Himself for us." (Rom. viii, 37.) 




REV. J. A. SCAMAHORN. 



The Exalted Life. 135 

It is worth while, my gentle reader, to live 
an exalted life. You have said many a time, 
*'Can we, poor worms of the dust, overcome the 
besetments about us, and live amidst woes, afflic- 
tions, and sins, untrammeled by these evils?" 
Surely it was so intended or the Master would 
not have said, ''Be ye holy, for I am holy." Then 
an answer comes up from the cruel past, from a 
weary, heart-sore traveler, who knew the cost of 
living for God amidst the most distressing dis- 
couragements, but in marvelous triumph he cries 
out, 'T can do all things through Christ, who 
strengtheneth me/' And now the poet joins the 
chorus, singing, 

"And Satan trembles when he sees 
The weakest saint upon his knees." 

We too often fail to attain the Exalted Life 
because we have a lingering fear that we can not 
live it. Yes, the tempter would make you believe 
that no one can live it. But shun his trickery ; 
for you can live it every day forever. Quickly 
stifle your fears ; hurl back your doubts, and go 
forth with adamantine will, like David, who went 
out to meet Goliath, and slay all your temptations 
and trample the enemy of your soul under your 
feet. For the world was made for God's children, 
and the day must come, although it tarries long, 
when they shall rule it in righteousness. 

TO 



, THE RADIANT LIFE. 

It is indeed a pleasure to pass into the green 
waving meadow, pluck the wild flowers, lounge 
in the shade, drink in the fresh air, listen to the 
birds sing, and gaze into two bright eyes and 
feel that you are near one who has crowned your 
earth's mightiest king in accepting your proffered 
love. 

God's green nature will make all our lives 
radiant if we only drink in the inspiration from 
the designs of the Creator. How it makes the 
heart leap into youth to watch the children at 
their play ! They make and unmake kings and 
queens at a breath, and by a wave of the hand 
tring wealth and power to the grasp. 

Then, it is cheermg and inspiring to hear the 
young man plan his future, — '*I shall go through 
college ; be admitted to the bar ; practice law a 
few years ; enter politics, and be elected governor 
of my State ; then go to Congress, and then may 
be some day be elected a United States Senator ; 
wield a mighty power ; have plenty of money ; 
have manv friends and few enemies , and after 
awhile retire from public work and live in ease." 
134 



The Radiant LtIFK. 135 

Ah! my dreamer, this is not all. If only we 
could live out our cherished hopes and visions, 
life would be a happy, glorious time. But dark 
days will come ; friends you thought most true 
will betray you ; plans fail ; disasters often attend 
your steps; scorn and jeers often greet you; 
your own heart will doubt God ; and you will 
turn your face from Him for a time, and all the 
world will seem to block your way and wreck 
your life forever. 

In the midst of these dire conditions of con- 
stant and unexpected changes, a young man 
says : ''I am trying to find a life that, in spite of 
all earth's toil, pains, tears, and failures, still has 
an anchor both 'sure and steadfast.' Where shall 
I study, live, travel, or w^orship, that I may find 
this life that I have pictured?" Although an 
education is a wonderful power to lift people out 
of the common walks of life, and start them on 
the road to success and happiness, yet an educa- 
tion alone makes people clever devils. Many of 
the greatest rogues and scoundrels have been 
graduates from the best universities. A few 
months ago a highly educated man, M. Marcel, 
of France, hanged himself, and willed that his 
large fortune should be buried with him, because 
he hated humanity and did not want mankind 
to be benefited either by his life or death. 



136 The Radiant Life. 

This is only one of many people who have had 
splendid educations and yet have fallen to the 
lowest depths of degradation. Go in the slums 
and cheap lodging houses of the great cities and 
by the wretched deeds of sin. It requires more 
than an education to save the soul from sin and 
keep men pure in heart. The path to the Radiant 
Life is not found in an education. Nor is it 
to be found in philosophy ; for it has no unfailing 
remedy for the ills and woes of life. The theme 
of its work is very laudable; and many a be- 
wildered scholar has been led out of his mysti- 
cism into positive knowledge and truth by the 
guiding hand of philosophy. But philosophy, in 
all its unlifting work, has never been able to 
raise a poor sinner out of his condemnation into 
the sublime faith of a Christian believer, nor 
to give the sweet peace that should come when 
the soul is forgiven and pardoned from all its 
sins. It is not to be found in wealth and 
pleasure ; for these send many to shame, sorrow, 
prison, and the s^afifold. Many a great, noble 
life has been spoiled by wealth. It is so easy, 
these days, to become inflamed and overbalanced 
by success and popularity. Most people can not 
endure prosperity. The glitter and charms of 
wealth are often detrimental to the Christian 
life. 



Thk Radiant Lifk. 137 

The path to the Radiant Life is not to be 
found in morality, although there have been many 
of her devotees who have held high positions and 
attained to earthly greatness ; but, after all, there 
is a misty valley before these passing pilgrims 
that overshadows all the life, and darkens their 
brightest hopes. In the midst of their feasts 
and banquets there appears a ghastly skeleton to 
warn them that death will end all their pleasure. 

It is not found in beauty ; for the beauty that 
we now see, admire, and cherish will soon be dirt 
and ashes, and the howling, sweeping winds will 
dust the hills and valleys with it. Nor is it to 
be found in earthly affection, for this is often 
of short duration, and, like the dew of morning, 
will soon disappear. It is so sad to see the 
affection of the husband and wife grow cold after 
a few years, and see it droop and fade like a 
frosted flower. What could be more tender and 
blessed than human affection if death did not 
break its sweet and loving ties? The path to 
the Radiant Life can never be found in human 
affection. 

'1 will hasten,'' says the young adventurer, 
**to question the crowds in the busy thorough- 
fares of the great cities, where move the rich, 
gay, honored, influential, and lettered men and 
women, and will say to each one, Tlease, will 



138 Thk Radiant Lifk. 

you tell me which road will take me to the 
Radiant Life."' "Radiant Life? Radiant life? 
Why, I don't believe I can tell you, young 
m.an; for I, too, am a stranger in the city just 
for to-day." A stranger, did he say? "Yes, a 
stranger just for to-day." This seems peculiar; 
for I have found so many strangers in the city; 
no one seems to know where the Radiant Life is. 
"Here is a beautiful park ; and I 'm so tired 
and weary, and this place is so inviting; for the 
grass is green and the shady trees will keep oft 
the hot sun ; I '11 stop and rest awhile." So the 
young fellow, tired, hungry, and weary with 
tramping all day in the scorching sun, tumbles 
down on the soft, green grass, and is soon fast 
asleep. While sleeping, he dreams, and we will 
let him tell us his experience : "O, how happy 
you look ! Where did you come from ? I mean 
that man yonder with such a shining face." 
"I? "I came from the Radiant Life, and it is 
my work to direct every one I meet to travel 
that road." "O, how glad I am that I met you, 
for I have been seeking the way myself." "That 
is strange," said the man ; "for the road begins 
right here." He handed me a little book ; I had 
never seen one like it before ; and, opening it, 
he said, "Read here;" and these are the words I 
read, "And Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, 



Thh Radiant Lifk. 139 

the truth, and the hfe ; no man cometh unto the 
Father, but by me." (John xiv, 6.) 

''This is the road, and I am the guide," said 
he. "Follow this path, and you shall taste the 
pleasures of the Radiant Life; the King of Glory 
lights the way. Here the soul finds happiness, 
protection, faith, confidence, and comfort in 
trouble, sorrow, and death. ''Come, young man, 
with me and I will lead the way. Will you 
take my hand, and let me lead you?" "Yes, I 
will gladly do so." After traveling a long dis- 
tance we came to a river that was flowing very 
swiftly, and then we walked along the bank 
for some distance. A strange feature was, that 
the river was full of little boats, some of these 
were drifting down the stream and others were 
being rowed up the stream. There was a person 
in each boat. I soon discovered that all the 
boats that were drifting down were black, and 
thus being rowed up stream were white. I 
could not understand why this was ; and was 
about to ask my guide, when he said, "Would 
you like to cross the river?" "O, yes; I shall be 
so happy to take a ride," I replied. We then 
came down to the water's edge, and my guide 
called out very loudly ; so loud was the sound 
of his voice that it echoed like distant thunder. 
In a short time a white boat appeared far out 



140 Thk Radiant L^ifk. 

on the stream, and soon a boatman in a flowing 
white robe rowed to the shore, and said, ''This 
will be your boat." The boatman stepped out, 
and I got in. "It is very hard,'' said he, ''to 
row against the tide ; but you '11 never be sorry 
if you do, and great will be your joy." I looked, 
but the boatman and guide were both gone ; and 
all about me leaped black, hissing waves, and 
dim twilight was upon the river. I began to row 
up the stream ; it was very hard. I passed a 
black boat drifting down and in each one was a 
soul. 

I rowed, and rowed, but did not get at all 
tired. After awhile I saw on the opposite shore a 
great city; its domes and spires glistened like 
gold ; the nearer I came to it, the more beautiful 
it seemed. The streets were paved with gold, 
and thousands and thousands of people in white 
robes thronged the streets. Then I heard a 
chorus, it seemed, of ten thousand voices sing- 
ing the most beautiful music. Listening, I catch 
these words: "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God 
Almighty." "O, how I would like to go to this 
city," I cried. A boat came out from the city 
toward me, and soon was at my side. In it was 
my shining-faced guide. He said to me, "Young 
man, climb into my boat, and I '11 row you to 
yonder city." I was very glad to know I could 



Thk Radiant I^ifk. 141 

go to the city which I had seen in the distance, 
and cHmbed into the boat. ''Am I going to that 
beautiful city?" I asked. '^Yes, you are, and 
you '11 soon be there.'' The guide, gazing into 
my face, said, ''This is the river of death, and 
the boat you are leaving is your mortality, and 
yonder city is heaven, your home. You have 
lived the Radiant Life." 

"What? When? Havel? O, guide, I've 
never been so happy in all my Hfe. But tell me 
when and where did my Radiant Life begin." 
"It began," said he, "when you willingly put 
your hand in mine, and walked with me by the 
river's side." "How strange! L was never so 
happy in all my life as when I took your hand, 
until now. I can hardly wait until I reach my 
home, the city just over there." 

"There are the gates," said my guide, point- 
ing to the right. " 'And the gates of it shall not 
be shut at all by day ; for there shall be no night 
there.'" (Rev. xxi, 25.) "I must be going 
now, for others are coming, and I must row them 
home," said the guide, and was pushing out from 
the shore. 

"Wait a moment! One question before you 
go. Tell me, please, why were some souls on the 
river in black boats while others were in white 
ones?" "Don't you know?" "No, I can't tell." 



142 Thk Radiant I^ifk. 

''It 's like this : those in the black boats were all 
drifting down with the current, down to eternal 
night and away from the city of God. On earth 
they loved sin, and it darkened their lives, and 
drove out the light and love of God, so that their 
souls are black. They rejected God, and are 
lost forever, and will soon be in the regions of 
eternal darkness. All those in the white boats 
row against the current ; they have been saved 
and redeemed through the shed blood of Jesus 
Christ, and are slowly nearing the city, the para- 
dise of God, and man's home forever.'' How 
strange this all seems ! And this death ? How 
I feared death when on the earth and how often 
I wished that I would not have to die. But 
this — why it is a beautiful trip. It 's so easy. 
No pain, nothing to frighten one on the way. 
Just going home. But I'm nearing the gate and 
I see a keeper there. Yes, and in his hand he 
holds a shining sword. Be he is calling too; I 
wonder what he is saying; I will hasten nearer 
so I can hear what he says : ''AH who have lived 
the Radiant Life enter at this gate! This way! 
This way!" Well, well, I'm going right in and 
hardly knew it ; but listen at that other cry ; and 
where does it come from? "Scoffers, revilers, 
rejecters of God, impure and unholy souls, take 
the road to the left, down to the regions of de- 



The Radiant Life. 143 

spair and darkness and — " Before he finished 
I had passed within. Passing in, I noticed these 
words in golden letters over the gate, "The city 
of God, not made with hands." O, what a host! 
And then it seemed ten thousand thousand and 
thousands of thousands began singing, '"Holy, 
holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts, for heaven is full 
of Thy glory; glory be to Thee forever and 
ever !'' 

Happiness? I never dreamed I could be so 
happy. Then, there must have been a thousand 
angels gathered around me, saying, "Come with 
us, and we will take you to Jesus, our King." 
As we were passing down the gold-paved street 
some one said to another, "He has already been 
here ten thousand years of earth's time." "I?" 
turning to them, "I ? Why, I just came in at 
the gate." "But you have been here a long, 
long time. Of course it does not seem long to 
you, and never will ; nor does it seem long to us. 
You will never get tired here. When you see 
our King, you will be happier still ; for he is 
such a tender, blessed, loving brother. Yonder 
he is coming now to meet you." 

Where am I ? Guess I 've been asleep ; here's 
where I sat down to rest. Yes, there is the park 
gate ; it must be night, for the lamps are burning ; 
I 'm in some city. But let me see : I was search- 



144 Thk Radiant Lifk. 

ing for the way to the Radiant Life, and the 
bright-faced guide gave me a book telHng me all 

about the way. If I could only remember . 

Ah, now I have it! He told me to read, "And 
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, 
and the life ; no man cometh unto the Father, 
but by me." (John xiv, 6.) And then he said, 
*Tut your hands in mine and walk with me." 
What a dream ! I 've found the way to the 
Radiant Life, and I '11 never, never leave it or 
forget it. Lord Jesus, I '11 take your hand and 
give you my life now, for the guide said, ''When 
you take my hand the Radiant Life begins." 



THE PATH TO THE RADIANT LIFE. 

Let me tell you once more of the blessed radiant life, 
Free from earth's vanity, sorrow, and strife. 

It 's found in the way the purified go, 
And gives men joy here below. 

It costs the price of full surrender; 
But has a heart most true and tender. 

It 's made of loving deeds each day, 
While men pursue the narrow way. 

It follows the wisdom from the skies; 
And never assumes the least disguise. 

It 's bound by the ties of a righteous God, 
At every step of earth that *s trod. 

It beams with hope like a beacon light. 
And has the treasure of great delight. 

It has no spite with a deadly sting, 
Nor has it a song with a mournful ring. 

It longs to live among the blest, 
And deems the love of God the best. 

145 



146 Thk Radiant Life. 

Lofty and gallant is the theme of living, 
As everywhere it 's always striving ; 

To do the thing that God loves best, 
And pass at last the final test. 

Smiling, it drinks the cup of sorrow. 
Believing that God will bless to-morrow. 

Regret and failure are left behind. 
Because they hinder its noble mind. 

It carries the candle of a burning zeal, 
And bears the signet of heaven's seal. 

It shines like the rays of a summer's sun. 
Then reaches home when life is run. 

From disappointment it turns away, 
And worships God the livelong day. 

Dollars are earned without any pride, 
For the Spirit of God walks by your side. 

Exalted ought men's lives to be, 
When all about 't is plain to see 

That sin will tarnish and degrade, 
People of every rank and stage. 

But the matchless love of God can do 
Transforming work for me and you. 




PATH TO THE RADIANT LIFE. 



Thk Radiant Life. 147 

One purpose, like a silver thread, 
Is woven in all that 's done and said. 

To God and self it's always true, 
Whatever men may say or do. 

At the sacred shrine it plighted a vow, 
And the holy charms abide till now. 

For home and God and native land 
It wears a consecration band. 

But the Radiant Life is one sublime, 

And is suited to every country and clime. 

Purity is perched on its banner high. 
While sin-cursed men are staggering by. 

The Radiant Life, O, saddened heart! 

Is the one that God would have you start; 

Then tarry not, nor longer wait. 
For the Son of Man is at your gate. 

He pushes open the golden door. 
That you may enter forever more. 

The Radiant Life! Where does it begin? 
And when are. the neophytes ushered in? 

It begins, when you are willing to say, 
I '11 trust and follow my Lord each day ; 

The step is taken ; the way beams bright, 
And you have started the Radiant Life. 



148 Thk Radiant Lifk. 

Etkrnai, Rkfugk. 

Thp) life of yesterday can not be changed ; 
for it is like the clay in the hands of the potter ; 
when molded, its form and condition are fixed ; 
and even though it is broken, its fixed condition 
continues still. So are our lives of yesterday; 
they bequeath to us the joys and sorrows of to- 
day. 

But to-day is ours. The shining sun, the 
blooming flowers, the singing birds, the happy 
Christian people that we meet, and the Spirit of 
the Just God, — all these inspire us to live the 
very best, truest, and purest lives to-day; and 
then, when the day's sun goes down and dark- 
ness veils the earth, your conscience may sweetly 
whisper, you need not fear to-morrow, for you 
have lived your best to-day. 

And then the recording angel writes, ''You 
lived your best to-day/' 



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